Starmer U-turns on cancelled elections

Sir Keir Starmer has abandoned plans to cancel local elections for 4.6 million people following a campaign by The Telegraph.

Elections in 30 local authorities will now go ahead in May, reversing a decision to delay them until 2027 and marking the latest about-turn for the Prime Minister.

The decision followed The Telegraph’s Campaign for Democracy, which called for the delayed elections to go ahead this year.

The 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 voters to avoid a wipeout by Reform UK on May 7.

The policy reversal – which emerged two hours after Sir Keir had suggested he was done with about-turns – was announced in a letter from Steve Reed, the Local Government Secretary, ahead of a legal challenge by Reform in the High Court later this week.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said: “Labour’s attempts to deny democracy have failed. It is yet more chaos from a useless zombie government incapable of making basic decisions.

“Councils have been strung along for months by a government terrified of facing voters at the ballot box.

“Steve Reed must now come clean about whether Labour’s nakedly partisan interests were behind his decision. The Telegraph deserves great credit for its campaign in defence of local democracy.”

On Monday night, Labour was facing questions over whether ministers decided to press ahead with cancelling elections despite knowing doing so could be illegal.

Mr Reed was under pressure to quit his ministerial post after he was accused by Reform of acting unlawfully when postponing the ballots.

He said the Government had made its decision after receiving “recent legal advice” that the delays were illegal.

The letter from Mr Reed also confirmed that the Government would pay Reform’s legal costs – some £150,000 – for mounting the challenge.

Nigel Farage accused the Government of acting like a “dictator” and suggested Mr Reed should quit.

“It’s a victory for Reform, but more importantly, it’s a victory for democracy in this country,” he said. “It seems to me that if a government minister does something illegal, they really ought to resign.”

Reform argued that Mr Reed acted unlawfully in cancelling elections because he delegated the final decision to councillors. Currently only ministers have the right to postpone local votes.

Mr Farage later hailed The Telegraph’s campaign and backed this publication’s call to strip ministers of the power to use an obscure clause of the Local Government Act 2000 to cancel ballots.

Lord Pickles, the former communities secretary, said: “Congratulations to The Telegraph for a brilliant campaign. Cancelling elections for administrative convenience runs against the spirit of our constitution. The motivation for the delay was plain political cowardice.”

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.

Robert Jenrick, the former communities secretary, also claimed that – on the issue of local elections – government lawyers told him during the Covid pandemic “the secretary of state wouldn’t have the power to delay democracy”.

Mr Jenrick, who defected from the Tories to Reform UK last month, told The Telegraph: “During the height of Covid, there were clearly exceptional circumstances which made close social contact risky.

“Even then, the most senior government lawyers advised that it would almost certainly be unlawful to cancel local elections two years running.

“They made clear that the secretary of state – rightly – wouldn’t have the power to delay democracy. It could not have been stronger. That advice will not have changed.”

It is understood that the KC said to have provided the legal advice to Mr Jenrick was Sir James Eadie, the First Treasury Counsel. Sir James, who remains in post, advises the Government on legal issues of national importance.

On Monday, councillors and other local authority insiders told The Telegraph of the “chaos”, “turmoil” and “unnecessary race against time” they now faced to organise votes.

Simon Ward, a Conservative councillor for Rugby borough council, where elections were cancelled, said: “The Government has absolutely piled on pressure and chaos to councils unnecessarily.”

It is understood that taxpayers will have to foot a £63m bill for local authorities that were going to be affected to make sure they can deliver the elections and the reforms.

The decision was announced just two hours after Sir Keir suggested there were no more about-turns to come.

Asked on BBC Radio 2 whether he would “stick to your course” after previous about-turns, the Prime Minister said: “Absolutely. I know exactly why I was elected in with a five-year mandate to change this country for the better and that’s what I intend to do.”

He has made more than a dozen about-turns under his leadership, including on scrapping winter fuel payments, mandatory digital ID cards, cutting £5bn in welfare reforms, sticking by the two-child benefit cap and opposing an inquiry into grooming gangs.

The about-turn on local elections comes just days after the Prime Minister lost a string of No 10 aides in the wake of the Lord Mandelson scandal: chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, communications chief Tim Allan and Sir Chris Wormald, the Cabinet secretary.

The Telegraph launched its Campaign for Democracy earlier this year, calling for the Government to be stripped of its legal powers to cancel local elections. The power to postpone rests in an obscure clause of the Local Government Act 2000.

It is understood that ministers will move to revoke the secondary legislation imposing the delay when Parliament returns from recess next week.

In March, the Liberal Democrats are expected to table an amendment in the House of Lords which, if passed, would ban the Communities Secretary from cancelling any election without primary legislation.

Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said: “We cannot allow the Government to cancel elections on a whim ever again.”

Despite the about-turn, Mr Reed has not reversed his decision to cancel four mayoral contests in Greater Essex, Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire and the Solent, and Norfolk and Suffolk.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]