Starmer Abandons Plan to Cancel Local Elections
Sir Keir Starmer has abandoned plans to cancel local elections in May “in light of recent legal advice”, reversing the decision to delay them in 30 local authorities until 2027. The Telegraph has more.
Elections in 30 local authorities will now go ahead, reversing the decision to delay them until 2027.
The Prime Minister’s latest U-turn follows the launch of the Telegraph’s Campaign for Democracy, which called for the delayed elections to go ahead this year.
The Labour Government had justified the delays by claiming that a looming reorganisation of local authorities would make elections expensive, complicated and unnecessary. However, it was accused of disenfranchising 4.6 million voters to avoid a wipeout by Reform UK on May 7th.
The policy reversal – which emerged two hours after Sir Keir had suggested he was done with U-turns – was announced in a letter from Steve Reed, the Local Government Secretary, before a legal challenge by Reform later this week.
Reed said the Government had made its decision after receiving “recent legal advice” that the delays were illegal.
The letter said: “The Secretary of State has decided to withdraw his decision to postpone the council elections of 30 local councils due to take place in May 2026 in the light of recent legal advice.”
It also confirmed that the Government would pay Reform’s legal costs for mounting the challenge. The policy reversal will pile pressure on Sir Keir to justify the initial decision.
Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, had compared Labour’s decision to one of a “dictator”, and announced that his party would contest the delays in court.
Farage suggested that Reed should resign over the fiasco, saying: “It’s a victory for Reform – but more importantly, it’s a victory for democracy in this country. We are delighted.
“I think for a Minister to do something that is clearly unlawful, otherwise they would not have gone and withdrawn themselves from the case on Thursday… Seems to me that if a Government Minister does something illegal, they really ought to resign.”
On Friday, Vijay Rangarajan, the Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission, told the Telegraph that the delays to elections were wrong and the Government did not have a “sufficient” justification for pushing them back to 2027.
He also argued that giving councillors the power to recommend delays to elections was a “conflict of interest” because it allowed them to avoid angry voters.
Labour is expected to lose swathes of seats to Reform in the local elections. Last month, polling for the Telegraph found that its majorities on 10 councils would be wiped out if the delayed elections went ahead on schedule.
Councils now have to prepare for elections ahead of May 7th. It is understood that around £63 million will be provided to the local authorities that were going to be affected to make sure they can deliver the elections and the reforms.
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