Minister defends Reed amid calls for him to resign over local elections U-turn

A minister has sought to defend Local Government Secretary Steve Reed against opposition calls for him to resign over the U-turn on postponing dozens of May’s council elections.

Stephen Kinnock said Mr Reed was doing “an excellent job” amid widespread criticism following the move to abandon plans to delay ballots across 30 local authorities following a legal challenge from Reform UK.

Party leader Nigel Farage has said he should step down while the Tories have demanded he quit if he is “unable or unwilling” to answer questions about his “personal propriety as a minister” raised by the handling of the decision.

Election administrators have warned that local authorities now face an “uphill struggle” to organise reinstated votes due in less than three months’ time.

Speaking to broadcasters on Tuesday morning, care minister Mr Kinnock said the Government had received legal advice about its original plan to postpone the votes which initially “said that we could do so”, but that the advice had now changed.

“That is not ideal. I’m not going to stand here and pretend to you that it is, but we’re a Government that works with the rule of law,” he told LBC.

Asked whether Mr Reed should consider his position, he told Sky News: “Steve Reed is doing an excellent job as Secretary of State, pushing through the Pride in Place programme, pushing through renters’ reforms, bulldozing all of the bureaucracy and regulations that stops us building things in this country.

“Steve is doing an excellent job as Secretary of State and he will continue to do that and to deliver for the British people.”

Mr Reed had previously approved proposals to push back the votes until 2027 to help deliver a major reorganisation of local government, prompting political opponents to accuse Labour of “running scared” amid a slump in its poll ratings.

But in a letter to council leaders on Monday, the Cabinet minister said the Government had written to the High Court confirming he was withdrawing that decision “in light of recent legal advice”.

“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,” Mr Reed said.

“My officials will be in touch with those affected councils to understand if any further practical support will be required.”

Some £63 million will be made available to local authorities undergoing structural changes, he said.

Mr Farage said that “given that the Government’s now given in, knew they’d lose to us in court, I think Steve Reed’s position as a minister should now be debated.”

“I think if a minister tried to deprive nearly five million people of a vote, that he’s acted illegally, I think Steve Reed should resign,” he told reporters on a visit to Romford.

His party previously announced it was taking legal action against the decision to postpone the elections and a hearing had been set at the High Court for Thursday.

As part of a U-turn marking the latest in a series of climbdowns, the Government has agreed to pay Reform UK’s legal costs, which Mr Farage said would run to about £100,000.

Laura Lock, deputy chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, said: “These teams now face an uphill struggle to catch up to where they should be. They have paused planning to avoid unnecessary cost, but this means they are now playing catch-up.”

The head of one affected council suggested it raises significant questions over the Government’s wider devolution plans, which include merging two-tier authorities into single unitary councils.

Matthew Hicks, leader of Tory-run Suffolk County Council said local authorities were experiencing “whiplash” as major Government decisions “shift repeatedly and without warning”.

“This uncertainty makes it almost impossible to plan effectively, deliver stability for residents, or provide clarity for our staff and partners,” he said.

“Certainly, as we previously set out in our letter to ministers, this makes delivering one new unitary council for Suffolk more difficult, and three nigh-on impossible.”

Meanwhile, the leader of Labour-run Thurrock Council Lynn Worrall said it was “disappointing that this decision has been reversed so late in the day”.

The Conservatives have written to Mr Reed calling on him to share the evidence base on which the original decision to delay the votes was made, and whether “party political considerations” lay behind it.

Shadow local government secretary Sir James Cleverly called on his opposite number in Government to stand down if he was “unable or unwilling” to answer “serious questions about your personal propriety as a minister”.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch described the reversal as “predictable chaos from a useless Government that cannot make basic decisions”.

City councils in Lincoln, Exeter, Norwich, Peterborough and Preston had been among those where ballots were not to take place on May 7, alongside several districts such as Cannock Chase, Harlow, Welwyn Hatfield and West Lancashire.

Polling day had also been postponed for county council voters in East Sussex, West Sussex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

An MHCLG 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.”