Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced backlash from councils after the government was forced to abandoned plans to postpone local elections for councils in May in yet another U-turn.
Labour had initially announced plans to cancel elections in 30 areas this year, impacting 4.5 million people, in order to free up “capacity” to undertake an overhaul of council structures.
Several councils have called the U-turn “extremely disappointing”, with Laura Lock, deputy chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, pointing out election workers “have lost months of essential planning time for reinstated May 7 elections.”
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) spokesperson said the decision came after “legal advice” following a challenge from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who said “we took this Labour government to court and won.”
Mr Farage has suggested that local governments secretary Steve Reed should resign following the row over council elections.
“I think for a minister to do something that is clearly unlawful, otherwise they would not have gone and withdrawn themselves from the case on Thursday… Seems to me that if a Government minister does something illegal, they really ought to resign.”
