Victory: yet another Labour U-turn as postponed elections will now go ahead.

This afternoon the government U-turned on their proposals to delay May 2026 elections in a number of councils. Elections to those councils will now go ahead in May after all.

I am certain this is the right decision but have some sympathy for the Electoral Registration officers in those councils who have lost weeks of planning time.

Everything about this was confusing.

On 22nd January the government announced that 34 of the councils going through reorganisation and originally due to hold elections in May would go ahead with those elections.

They also listed 29 councils which would now have their May 2026 elections postponed.

The original Press release with those two lists of councils can still be seen on the Gov.uk website at

 Councils granted flexibility to finish reorganisation - GOV.UK

Today housing and communities Secretary of State Steve Reed announced a U-turn on this decision. His letter to all affected council leaders can be seen at:

Postponement of local elections in England in May 2026

And the key sentences are as follows:

"The Secretary of State has decided to withdraw his decision to postpone the council elections of 30 local councils due to take place in May 2026 in the light of recent legal advice (for the avoidance of doubt no privilege is waived).  

The Secretary State invited the housing minister, who was not involved in the initial decision-making, to reconsider the position afresh on a very urgent basis, recognising the pressing timescales involved. The housing minister has decided that the elections should proceed in May 2026.  

The Secretary of State will seek to agree an order with the Claimant in the light of this announcement disposing of the claim and will agree to pay the Claimant’s costs of these proceedings. 

The Government can confirm that all local elections in May 2026 will now go ahead."

I might be tempted to fall about laughing except that we as the poor long-suffering taxpayers are going to have to fork out "£63m in additional capacity funding to the 21 local areas undergoing reorganisation" to help deal with "the pressure they are under as we seek to deliver the most ambitious reforms of local government in a generation," presumably including the costs of dealing with repeated government U-turns like this one.

That's on top of the fact that you and I as taxpayers have to pick up Reform UK's legal costs for the case they brought - this is, of course, the fault of the government, not Reform.

The more eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that on 22nd January Steve Reed said that 29 councils would have their elections postponed, and on 16th February he said that all 30 councils would now have their elections after all.

The reason for the difference is Pendle in Lancashire. The government originally decided that Pendle would be the one district council in Lancashire where the elections were not postponed: here is a link to a local "Place North West" news report about it. 

Govt delays all 2026 Lancs elections bar one - Place North West

However, a week later on 290th January the government U-turned and added Pendle to the list of councils where the elections would not happen.

Pity the poor Electoral Registration Officers at Pendle Council who have to organise elections in less than three months and who inside three and a half weeks have had to deal with a government announcement, a first U turn, and a second U-turn putting the election on, off, and on again.


DAYS SINCE LAST LABOUR U-TURN - ZERO



































It cannot be emphasised too strongly that there were councillors of EVERY major party who never went along with the proposals to defer this year's elections.

The Conservative leadership argued against deferring elections this year and the majority of Conservative-controlled councils voted not to ask to defer elections.

The Lib/Dem leadership argued against deferring elections this year and all but one Lib/Dem controlled councils voted not to ask to defer elections.

Fifteen of the thirty councils which asked for and were due to have their elections postponed were Labour controlled, but there were plenty of Labour councils which voted to have elections go ahead.

This was a Labour government initiative, it was the Labour government which decided, after having invited requests to defer elections with a very short consultation period over Christmas, which requests to accept and which to decline. And it was the Labour government which has now backed down leaving all of us as taxpayers with a bill of scores of millions of pounds.

This one isn't on the councillors, nor on the opposition parties all of whom opposed it, the blame for this shambles lies squarely with the Labour government.


Here's Kemi Badenoch's comment on the whole gigantic mess:














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