Government abandons plans to postpone local elections in 30 council areas in May
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has just posted on social media the letter sent out by the government confirming it has dropped its plans to delay elections in 30 council areas.
Farage says:
We took this Labour government to court and won.
In collusion with the Tories, Keir Starmer tried to stop 4.6 million people voting on May 7th.
Only Reform UK fights for democracy
Key events
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Local government thinktank accuses ministers of playing ‘fast and loose’ with democracy
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Farage says Steve Reed should resign after proposing local election delays that would have been unlawful
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Councils have been left ‘bewildered’ by elections U-turn, local government leader says
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Zack Polanski welcomes news 30 local elections now going ahead, saying cancelling them was part of ‘disturbing authoritarian trend’
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Badenoch claims local elections U-turn shows Starmer running ‘zombie government’
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Lib Dems calls for law change to remove ability of ministers to cancel elections without primary legislation
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Tories dismiss government as ‘joke’ after local elections U-turn, saying Steve Reed’s credibility ‘completely gone’
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List of 30 councils where May elections no longer being postponed
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Reed says councils in England will get up to £63m more to help them with reorganisation
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Government abandons plans to postpone local elections in 30 council areas in May
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No 10 says PM has confidence in Josh Simons, minister who commissioned probe into journalists when running thinktank
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No 10 says Antonia Romeo, likely next cabinet secretary, is ‘outstanding leader’, in response to report about 2017 complaint
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Starmer interviewed by Jeremy Vine on Radio 2
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Starmer says social media has become something ‘harming our children’
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Starmer suggests tighter rules for teens on social media could include restrictions on ‘doomscrolling’
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Starmer says he wants to ‘go faster’ on raising defence spending, in response to report saying he wants it at 3% of GDP by 2029
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Starmer says Labour Together probe into journalists ‘absolutely needs to be looked into’
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Starmer says government will tighten rules on teens and social-media, but is ‘open-minded’ about case for Australian-style ban
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Starmer says whatever consultation on social media ban for under-16s decides should be implemented quickly
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Starmer restates call for apprenticeships to be more respected, saying ministers shouldn’t just prioritise high achievers
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Kendall suggests having annual debates in parliament updating internet safety laws because ‘technology changing so fast’
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Cabinet Office ‘looking into’ how Labour thinktank commissioned investigation into journalists, Kendall says
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Liz Kendall stresses consultation launch does not mean full social media ban for under-16s is inevitable
Local government thinktank accuses ministers of playing ‘fast and loose’ with democracy
The Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), a thinktank covering this sector, has issued a statement saying the government should never have proposed postponing the 30 council elections in the first place.
It also says the government has been playing “fast and loose” with democracy, and it says the U-turn has made the elections harder to run for councils and political parties.
It says:
The government should remember that running an election is difficult. As years of our research have shown, the fact that elections are safe and reliable despite severe time and resource constraints is only because of the extraordinary efforts put in by electoral administrators. This most recent announcement means that 30 councils will now have to run elections within an even more constrained timetable. This risks the successful delivery of elections in all of these places, not to mention the additional strain it will needlessly add to the workloads of dedicated staff. On the political side, many parties will now be scrabbling around to find candidates they didn’t think they needed. It’s reckless of the government to play fast and loose with the foundations of democracy.
Those councils undergoing local government reorganisation are trying to implement the biggest change in local governance for a generation. This is a project of massive complexity being delivered under intense pressure in challenging timescales. They deserve to have confidence that the government will deliver on its side of the process and not just keep changing its mind. Today’s announcement will further dent councils’ confidence in the government’s consistency of purpose.
In a post on Bluesky Heather Green, a legal academic, points out that the government has already laid the statutory instrument delaying these elections. That will have to be annulled.
Government has already laid before Parliament the SI cancelling the 30 local elections. It takes effect from 27 Feb & will need to be annulled when Parliament comes back from recess next week. Was laid 5 Feb, after 20 Jan hearing in Reform’s JR.
Farage says Steve Reed should resign after proposing local election delays that would have been unlawful
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has said that the government backed down on postponing local elections because they “obviously knew they were going to lose” if his judicial review went to court.
Speaking to broadcasters, he claimed this was also the view of the Electoral Commission, based on an interview its chief executive gave to the Daily Telegraph at the end of last week.
Vijay Rangarajan told the paper, which was running a campaign to get the decision to postpone the elections overturned, that the government did not have a “sufficient reason” to justify the elections not going ahead. He said:
We would hope that no government would go and say that somehow elections are fungible with other parts of council money. It’s a fundamental point that they have to run elections on those timescales, and we would put the bar very high for postponement.
Farage said the U-turn was a victory for his party, but also a “victory for freedom and democracy”.
He also said this should be a resignation matter for Steve Reed, the housing secretary who took the decision to postpone the elections in the first place. He explained:
If a minister acts in a way that’s illegal, and tries to cancel people’s democratic right to vote whilst they’re still being charged their council tax, I personally think that really is a resignation matter.
Farage also critcised the Tories for their record on this issue, pointing out that although they opposed cancellation of the elections nationally, in some areas Tory-led authorities requested a delay.
How can you stand up in the House of Commons, senior shadow minister after shadow minister, and say on behalf of the Conservatives it’s wrong that the elections should be cancelled, and yet five of your council areas – in some cases for the second year in a row – want to cancel those elections. Frankly, on this issue, the Conservatives are all over the place and every bit as bad as Labour.
Farage said the Lib Dems had also called for a delay in Cheltenham, where they lead the council, even though Ed Davey opposed the government’s move at a national level.
Here are three commentators on the government’s decision to go ahead with local elections in 30 areas that only last month it said it was posptoning.
From Luke Tryl, the More in Common pollster
Probably inevitable. But ends up with worst of all worlds from public opinion perspective. Another u-turn which makes govt look chaotic/weaker but still looks like as people said about winter fuel ‘Govt tried to get away with it and failed’
From the New Statemsman’s Ben Walker
Government caves in on cancelled elections for soon to be abolished local authorities. What a shit show.
Parties now need to scramble to field a few hundred more candidates.
I wouldn’t try to ascertain how aware the voters were that their locales weren’t set to have elections but I wouldn’t be surprised if the swings away from Labour in these parts won’t be bigger.
From Sam Freedman, who co-writes the Comment is Freed Substack
OK so on the one hand this is good for democracy but on the other means I have do loads more work for my local elections predictions post.
Yet another example of this government pointlessly using up political capital for something they had to u-turn on anyway. A real speciality.
Rupert Lowe, who was elected as a Reform UK MP, who quit the party after a row with Nigel Farage and who has now launched his own hard-right party, has also welcomed the news that elections are going ahead.
Wonderful news. The elections in Great Yarmouth, and elsewhere, are now ON in May after another U-turn. We will fight every seat in my constituency, and we aim to win every seat.
Ben Quinn has more on Lowe’s Restore Britain party here.
Reform UK spent well over £100,000 preparing its judicial review of the decision to postpone 30 local elections, Christopher Hope from GB News reports. The government has agreed to pay these costs. (See 2.41pm.)
Councils have been left ‘bewildered’ by elections U-turn, local government leader says
Most of the councils where elections were going to be postponed in May are district councils. Richard Wright, the councillor who chairs the District Councils’ Network, has put out a statement on behalf of the DCN. He says people in local government will be “bewilderered” by what’s going on, and he says it implies the government has not got a good grasp on the “huge legal complexity” of reorganisation.
He says:
Council officers, councillors and local electorates will be bewildered by the unrelenting changes to the electoral timetable.
Councils were assured by the government that elections could be legally cancelled but now it seems ministers have come to the opposite conclusion. It’s the government, not councils that have acted in good faith, which should bear responsibility for this mess which impacts on people’s faith in our cherished local democracy.
The councils affected face an unnecessary race against time to ensure elections proceed smoothly and fairly, with polling stations booked and electoral staff available.
If election cancellations were deemed necessary to free up capacity for local government reorganisation to succeed, councils will now be asking where this leaves the reorganisation timetable.
We need to have faith in the government’s decision-making as we work on the biggest shake-up of councils in 50 years – but the government is doing little assure us that it has a strong grasp of the huge legal complexity involved.
Zack Polanski welcomes news 30 local elections now going ahead, saying cancelling them was part of ‘disturbing authoritarian trend’
The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has welcomed the news that local elections are going ahead in the 30 areas where they were going to be postponed. He says:
I am pleased the Government has done another u turn.
Attempting to cancel elections, on top of scrapping jury trials, mandatory ID cards, criminalising peaceful protest and harassment of journalists is part of a disturbing authoritarian trend of this caretaker Prime Minister.
Badenoch claims local elections U-turn shows Starmer running ‘zombie government’
Kemi Badenoch has posted a statement on social media saying the local elections U-turn shows Keir Starmer is running a “zombie government” that cannot stick to decisions. She says:
This is a zombie government. U-turn after U-turn after U-turn.
No plan or programme to deliver anything. Even the simple stuff that should be business as usual gets messed up.
She also blames Angela Rayner.
“The incompetence of Angela Rayner (the supposed leader-in-waiting) who started this when she was running that department has now been exposed.”
(This is unfair given that Rayner left the cabinet long before her department took the decision to postpone these elections. But Rayner was in charge when the local government reorganisation started. Today’s announcement contains an implicit admission that reorganisation is costing more than originally planned. See 3.01pm.)
Lib Dems calls for law change to remove ability of ministers to cancel elections without primary legislation
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has welcomed the local elections U-turn. He says it shows why the government should back the Lib Dem proposal to remove the ability of the government to postpone elections using secondary legislation.
He says:
The Liberal Democrats have fought tooth and nail to stop this stitch-up and the government has been forced into a humiliating U-turn. Labour are terrified of Reform and we are the only party willing to stand up to Farage and beat him, as we do week after week in council byelections.
We cannot allow the government to cancel elections on a whim ever again. That is why the Liberal Democrats have brought forward an amendment to change the law, stripping the government of this power and ensuring that the public’s voice is protected by statute, not left to the whims of ministers. Starmer should back these plans immediately.
Tories dismiss government as ‘joke’ after local elections U-turn, saying Steve Reed’s credibility ‘completely gone’
James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, says Steve Reed’s credibility has now “completely gone” following this U-turn.
I’ve always said these elections should go ahead.
Steve Reed’s credibility is now completely gone. This botched cancellation & U-turn will have cost local government £millions, I don’t think this funding will cover those costs.
Labour is a joke
List of 30 councils where May elections no longer being postponed
Here is the list of 30 councils where the government was going to postpone the elections planned for May, but where they will now go ahead.
They are listed according to the party affiliation of the council leader. In most cases, the council will be under majority control, but in some cases a leader affiliated to one party will be heading a minority administration, or will be in coalition with other parties.
Labour – 21
Adur District Council
Basildon Borough Council
Blackburn with Darwen Council
Cannock Chase District Council
Chorley Borough Council
City of Lincoln Council
Crawley Borough Council
Exeter City Council
Hyndburn Borough Council
Ipswich Borough Council
Norwich City Council
Peterborough City Council
Preston City Council
Redditch Borough Council
Rugby Borough Council
Stevenage Borough Council
Tamworth Borough Council
Thurrock Council
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
West Lancashire Borough Council
Worthing Borough Council
Liberal Democrat – 2
Cheltenham Borough Council
Pendle Borough Council
Conservatives – 5
East Sussex County Council
Harlow District Council
Norfolk County Council
Suffolk County Council
West Sussex County Council
Independent – 1
Burnley Borough Council
Green – 1
Hastings Borough Council
Reed says councils in England will get up to £63m more to help them with reorganisation
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has released the text of a letter that Steve Reed, the housing secretary, has sent to council leaders about the decision to go ahead with local elections that were going to be postponed.
Reed says the government will allocate £63m to help the councils in England fund the re-organisaton programme. (Areas where county councils operate alongside district councils will see that two-tier system abolished, and unitary councils taking over instead.)
Reed says:
I recognise that many of the local councils undergoing reorganisation voiced genuine concerns about the pressure they are under as we seek to deliver the most ambitious reforms of local government in a generation.
I am therefore announcing today that we will provide up to £63m in additional capacity funding to the 21 local areas undergoing reorganisation across the whole programme, building on the £7.6m provided for developing proposals last year. I will shortly set out further detail about how that funding will be allocated.
My officials will be in touch with those affected councils to understand if any further practical support will be required.
Reed justified his original decision to cancel some elections on the grounds that those councils were all saying holding elections would make reorganisation more difficult.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has issued this statement about the decision not to postpone local elections in 30 areas. A spokesperson said:
Following legal advice, the government has withdrawn its original decision to postpone 30 local elections in May.
Providing certainty to councils about their local elections is now the most crucial thing and all local elections will now go ahead in May 2026.
Whether or not the elections were being cancelled or just postponed is arguable. Future elections were always going to go ahead in these areas, when council reorganisation (the replacement of a two-tier council structure with unitary councils) was complete. So in that sense the elections were just being postponed. But by that point the old councils will no longer be in existence, so elections to those bodies were going to be cancelled.
Government abandons plans to postpone local elections in 30 council areas in May
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has just posted on social media the letter sent out by the government confirming it has dropped its plans to delay elections in 30 council areas.
Farage says:
We took this Labour government to court and won.
In collusion with the Tories, Keir Starmer tried to stop 4.6 million people voting on May 7th.
Only Reform UK fights for democracy
The Times is reporting that the government “has abandoned its attempt to delay elections to 30 councils across the country, after being warned by lawyers that the move would be illegal”.
Reform UK said it was going to challenge this decision via judicial review, and the first mainn court hearing in the case was due later this week.
The government has not commented on the Times story yet. I’ll post their response as soon as I get it.
The Internet Watch Foundation has welcomed the government’s commitment to tighten rules relating to social media and teenagers. (See 9.32am and 11.55am.)
Hannah Swirsky, its head of policy, said:
New tech can be a dangerous frontier. It is crucial legislation can keep pace with the evolving threats …
We are very pleased to see the government taking further steps. Now, we urge them to provide clear guidelines on how companies must build platforms which are safe by design, and where children are a central consideration rather than an afterthought.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/feb/16/social-media-online-safety-act-keir-starmer-uk-politics-live-news-updates
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