Starmer seeks to defer yet more more elections

Keir Starmer has been accused of running "scared" from voters again, after Labour moved to cancel yet more elections for millions of voters next year.

I recently wrote about the latest Labour plans to defer four more Mayoral elections. It also emerges that some council leaders in areas due to have elections next May have been contacted by the government and asked if they would like to defer those elections.

Responding to today's reported delay, Sir James Cleverly, speaking on behalf of the Conservatives,  accused Labour of running "scared from the voters".

He told the Express: "Labour promised council elections would go ahead as planned as recently as last week. Now they're saying they won't. Another broken promise. Voters will now be denied the right to elect their own representatives - and not for the first time under this Labour Government.

"Labour are scared of the voters. They thought they could completely overhaul local government and stack the deck in their favour. They were wrong. Earlier this month, Labour cancelled mayoral elections and now they are at it again with council elections, fiddling the democratic process to serve their own political interests.

"It cannot be right that some elected representatives will now be serving seven year terms. The Electoral Commission warned the Government that elections should not be delayed by more than a year, but that has clearly fallen on deaf ears. Labour pushed these changes through at an unrealistic pace and are now blaming local leaders for not being ready.

"Labour talk a good game about empowering communities but they have shown their true colours with their top-down approach to local government and their disdain for local democracy. Only the Conservatives will ensure residents get a fair deal."

So that I cannot be accused of hypocrisy, let me make clear that I do think there can be special circumstances in which delaying elections for a year or at most two is justified, provided that there is a unanimous or overwhelming cross-party consensus that this is being done in the public interest and not to help or hinder any particular political party.

I did support the last government in delaying the council elections which had been due in 2020 because of COVID and then delaying a few of those due in 2021, because the new dates made more sense in terms of the local government election timetable: at the time there was genuine cross-party support for those delays.

That cross-party consensus does not exist now. Reform UK are convinced that elections are being delayed not to save public money but to hinder their progress. Whatever the real motives, delaying elections without such a consensus risks undermining their legitimacy.


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