Starmer abandons plans to cancel May council elections in latest U-turn

Sir Keir Starmer has abandoned plans to postpone elections across 30 councils this May after being warned it would be illegal, in yet another humiliating U-turn for the government.

Local government secretary Steve Reed had previously approved proposals to delay the polls for more than 4.5 million people to help deliver a major reorganisation of local authorities.

But on Monday, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said it was abandoning the plan in the face of “new legal advice” – a climbdown that has been claimed as a victory for Reform UK, which had launched a legal action against the government to challenge the proposed delay.

In a further humiliation for the government, ministers have agreed to pay Reform’s legal costs relating to the party’s challenge.

In a letter to council leaders, housing secretary Steve Reed suggested the government could offer “practical support” to local authorities after reversing the decision to postpone elections, as well as making £62m available to authorities undergoing structural changes.

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“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,” he said.

In the wake of the climbdown, Mr Farage suggested Mr Reed should resign as he hailed the reversal of planned delays as a victory for Reform UK and “democracy in this country”.

“What I do think now is the minister, Steve Reed, has clearly acted illegally, and 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,” the party leader told journalists on a visit to Romford.

He added: “[It] seems to me that if a government minister does something illegal, they really ought to resign.”

Asked if he should apologise for the potential cost to taxpayers of both footing the bill for legal fees and of holding the elections that had been due for postponement, Mr Farage said: “The idea I should apologise because it costs money to hold elections in a country where one-and-a-quarter million people died in two world wars so that we could be a free democracy, I won’t even begin to apologise.

“That is our system. That is our way. We choose the people that represent us, tax us, make decisions on our behalf, and once every few years, we’ve the right to judge them and get rid of them. That is the very basis of how modern Britain works.”

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The government also faced criticism from local authority leaders, with one accusing Sir Keir’s administration of “wasting everyone's time”.

Conservative run Norfolk County Council (NCC), which last held elections in May 2021, is one of the 30 local authorities who were expecting to postpone their elections this year.

The leader of NCC, councillor Kay Mason Billig said: “I note the government's change of mind on yet another decision it couldn't stick to – wasting everyone's time.”

Meanwhile, the leader of Suffolk County Council, Matthew Hicks, said local authorities are “experiencing whiplash” from government decisions which make it “almost impossible” to plan effectively for residents.

And a spokesperson for East Sussex County Council said the authority’s workload will “intensify” with the “added demand” of organising a vote.

A 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.”

City councils in Lincoln, Exeter, Norwich, Peterborough and Preston had been among the authorities where votes were due to not take place on 7 May, 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.

The latest U-turn comes after weeks of turmoil in the government, with the prime minister’s time in office characterised by a series of rowbacks and climbdowns from the watering down of the government’s flagship benefits bill to a major U-turn on the controversial winter fuel cut last year.

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The local elections are seen by many in Labour as a deadline for Sir Keir to turn the party’s fortunes around, with the prime minister facing the growing prospect of a leadership challenge if Labour faces a wipeout in the polls.

Most councils that had requested a delay were Labour-led, but there were some controlled by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

The Electoral Commission had previously voiced concerns about the prospect of further delays to local elections, saying capacity constraints are not a legitimate reason to postpone long-planned polls.

Vijay Rangarajan, the organisation’s chief executive, said the move caused “unprecedented” uncertainty and could damage public confidence.

Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch said the decision represented “predictable chaos from a useless government that cannot make basic decisions”.

“The legal mess is no surprise and one of the reasons why Conservatives... opposed the move to delay council elections for a second year in a row.

“We voted to oppose these unnecessary cancellations at every opportunity so this is the right decision. A one-year delay to allow new councils to be reorganised is one thing. Two years was always too much,” she said.

Ms Badenoch added: “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.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the government had been “forced into a humiliating U-turn” after reversing its decision to postpone some local elections.