Keir Starmer U-turns on plans to cancel 30 local elections
The government has shelved plans to postpone local elections in May for 30 councils in England.
Communities secretary Steve Reed says the decision comes “in the light of recent legal advice”, and ahead of a planned High Court hearing that was set for Thursday.
According to a letter from the Government Legal Department, shared by Nigel Farage on social media, Reed “has decided to ‘withdraw his decision’ to postpone the elections”.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “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.”
The Reform leader said in a post on X that his party “took this Labour government to court and won”, adding: “In collusion with the Tories, Keir Starmer tried to stop 4.6 million people voting on May 7th.
“Only Reform UK fights for democracy.”
Controversial local elections delay
Labour has found itself on the back foot over the plans to delay a swathe of local elections across England, especially as the government faces an uphill battle to defend council seats.
In total, 63 councils were given the chance in December to delay their local elections for a year, with redistricting underway. Most councils opted to keep local elections this year, while 29 chose to push back the date. Ministers ultimately delayed elections for 30 councils.
But in January, the High Court agreed to hear a legal challenge to the government’s plan to delay elections for a third of councils in England until 2027.
Reform accused Labour at the time of “disgracefully trying to deny democracy”, while the government countered: “There is a clear precedent for postponing local elections where local government reorganisation is in progress, as happened between 2019 and 2021.”
In just over 18 months since coming to power, the government has been plagued by a long list of policy U-turns, with sharp reversals on welfare reform, business rates hikes, ‘day one’ workers’ rights and more.
This latest about-turn comes amidst an uncertain moment for the government, which is currently lacking a permanent chief of staff, a director of communications and cabinet secretary all at the same time.