A forced but welcome U-turn on cancelling elections

The move follows The Telegraph’s campaign against Labour’s attack on democracy Daily Telegraph 16/02/26 Having spent weeks defending its decision to cancel elections to around 30 local councils in England, the Government has unexpectedly abandoned the idea in the latest U-turn staged by No 10. This newspaper has campaigned from the outset against what was by any measure an attack on democracy. Lawyers acting for Reform UK were proposing to argue that the Government was misusing powers under the Local Government Act 2000 that were never intended to allow the postponement of elections other than in exceptional circumstances. Labour had claimed that the looming reorganisation of local authorities would make elections expensive, complicated and unnecessary. Steve Reed, the Local Government Secretary, had already told MPs that he was tabling powers under the Act and was still defending his decision last week. But, in a letter published yesterday, he said that he was withdrawing his decision “in the light of recent legal advice”. It might have saved a lot of time and money had he sought such advice in the first place.

The political damage that was inflicted on the Government by denying some 4.5 million people a vote also helped turn the tide. The head of the Electoral Commission, Vijay Rangarajan, criticised the decision and raised concerns about five councils that have not held votes since 2021 after “double delays”. Some critics had maintained that postponing elections might be helpful to the Government, which feared the loss of significant numbers of council seats to rival parties. Now the elections that will take place this May are likely to prove an even more daunting challenge for Sir Keir Starmer than they were otherwise expected to be. A heavy defeat will revive pressure on the Prime Minister, who managed to fend off attacks on his leadership last week. The screeching U-turn has left the councils that had decided to postpone the elections in difficulties as they now have to work against a constrained timetable and parties will need to find candidates. As the Local Government Information Unit think-tank put it: “Having attempted to pass the political risk of postponing elections on to councils by insisting that it should be a local choice and now backing down under the threat of legal action, the Government has shown a capricious disregard for local democracy.” Labour could hardly have made a bigger mess of this had it tried and Mr Reed has serious questions to answer for allowing the threat to continue for so long. Sir Keir is right to drop the plan, but he did so only under intense political pressure and the likelihood of a defeat in the courts. The Prime Minister’s instincts were to go along with the cancellation of elections and that will surely not be forgotten. To stop it happening again, ministers should be stripped of their legal powers to cancel local elections without a full vote in Parliament.