Twenty-Two Labour Councils Set to Delay Local Elections in Areas Reform is Predicted to Surge
Twenty-two Labour councils are poised to postpone local elections, all of them in areas where Reform UK is set to surge. The Telegraph has the story.
An investigation by the Telegraph has revealed that the party has decided to delay this May’s elections in five areas and is considering doing so in a further 17. Only four Labour authorities have ruled out delays.
By contrast, only two Conservative councils and one Liberal Democrat council favour a delay, and seven Tory areas and eight Lib Dem districts have ruled them out.
Steve Reed, the Communities Secretary, said last month that he would give 63 areas the opportunity to postpone polls due in May until 2027 to allow them to concentrate on local government reorganisation.
While most local authorities are set to reject the delay, Labour councils in Hyndburn, Chorley, Preston and Blackburn with Darwen told the Telegraph they had requested one.
These are all areas where polls show that Nigel Farage’s party is expected to do well. In Hyndburn, a recent poll found Reform was on 39%, while Labour was in third place on 16%.
Mr Farage said elections were being cancelled to save Labour from embarrassment in May. “This is the kind of outrageous behaviour you expect from a banana republic,” he said. “Labour is damaging our democracy.”
Four of Labour’s delays are in northern England, where a recent poll found Reform was on 29% and Labour on 25%.
A constituency poll found that in Preston, Reform stands at 30% compared to Labour’s 24%. In Blackburn, Labour is in fourth place, behind an independent, the Greens and Reform.
The Labour leadership in Exeter is also suggesting a delay, saying it would save money and allow officers to concentrate on the reorganisation. A formal decision will be taken in the next few days.
In 17 Labour areas, the councils have not ruled out delays and say they will make a decision by the government’s deadline of January 15th. In one, Nuneaton and Bedworth, where Labour runs a minority administration, the party wants to delay the elections but the Conservatives do not.
Worth reading in full.
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In a proper democracy if ‘reorganisation’ was going to cause problems for local elections you would delay the ‘reorganisation’.
Otherwise you might think that our democracy is even more tattered and reduced than we already think.
Where I live we have a town, district and county council. When I first read about this whole business, I thought it might be a good idea. But it turns out we will still have a town council, we will have a bigger district council and above that a Mayor with some kind of council, a bit like the GLA. So some responsibilities are going to move, but we will still have three tiers of local government, and meanwhile there will have been increased cost and loss of focus due to navel gazing rather than fixing potholes.
Faux Democracy has just become even more faux, these commies will not relinquish power willingly…..
During the Rona plandemic medical nazism, we heard daily of this ‘thriving democracy’.
Shut down the election process to save granny and the earth mommy. and to save us from Vlad the Droner, will be the next hue and cry.
Don’t forget the Conservative councils doing the same. Mine is, in East Sussex. No elections for two years.
The Uniparty. Their excuse will be that Reform is Fascist and not having a democratic vote where Reform might win is ‘saving democracy’ (and mommy earth and granny).
They are only digging their own grave deeper.
My first thought too. Are they thinking things might get “better” for them?! 🤣
Cards on the table, I am a Reform supporter, so will admit an interest, but even so I don’t understand why the need for the delay. Surely you should proceed with all elections on the scheduled date. When the structure of any new authority has been finalised, the existing councils should second members to the new authority in proportion to their current structure as a shadow, transferring board. Once transition of all staff and services has completed, the old councils are wound down and new elections called for the new authority. To do otherwise leads to two things, firstly unelected councillors continuing to receive their allowances beyond the expiry of their contract with the people (so hardly surprising they are voting to extend) and secondly a cliff edge where the old councils end and the new begin with no electoral mandate. Quite honestly, this is just a total Uniparty mess
The ‘need’ ia to deny ud democracy and prevent them from being caned by the electorate. Its simple. We have never lived in a democracy, only an elected aristocracy. We only get a choice once every 4 or 5 years. Then they pretty much lord it over us for the next 4 or 5 years.
Time for more direct democracy. More referndums and the voters deciding on laws. Down with parliament other than as an advisory body to the voters.
No, sorry, this is a DEMOCRACY, and in a democracy, YOU DON’T GET TO CANCEL ELECTIONS.
“Delaying elections” like Unelected Dictator Zelensky the Weasel is “delaying elections” = cancelling them to stay in power.
Labour will be OUT for a Generation at least. We cannot have parasites like this in power as if we were a South American Regime that denies elections.
Nothing short of sabotaging democracy. Firstly, is anyone seriously suggesting that because councils are SO incredibly busy reorganizing local government that they can’t afford to take just ONE day off and hold the local elections as normal, after which they can resume their frantic “reorganizing” schedule?
Obviously if this reorganizing is really a thing (of which I have my doubts), it should happen in the interim period between elections!
Secondly, is it just coincidence that they all happen to be in regions where Reform has made the best progress in the polls? I have not a shadow of doubt that whether the “reorganizing” occurs or not, it’s being used purely as a smokescreen for putting Reform at a grossly unfair disadvantage.
How is this even in their gift to decree?
Surrey are guinea pigs for Ranting Rayner’s ill-thought out reorganisation that seems to have come from a boozy night at the student union bar. So we do get a vote in May for the new East Surrey council – partly including the constituency of Sushi’s little bimbo Coutinho – and for a new Mayor of Surrey. We also have a parish council where the complaint is that the soon to be gone current district council is accused of dumping things on them for which they have no resources nor funding for such. Since Surrey County Council is the Highway Authority it either serves both East and West Surrey or it is split to each half.
Rayner is thick. Shes an example of why no one should be allowed to be in a serious position unless they have an IQ of over 100. And aren’t a woman. Sorry. Women are our problem.
As far as they’re concerned the priority is to spread the cost of bailing out bankrupt Woking Council to all the council taxpayers of west Surrey …. all the affluent areas in the Surrey Hills will be absolutely clobbered to pay for it.
Absolutely apalling and not surprising given these Labour scumbags are just communists in disguise. Communism can never win by fair tactics and fair voting. It always cheats, lies and steals. I utterly despise these bstards. If they keep this anti democratic stuff going, they will find themselves the victims of a civil war which will deliberately track them down and punish them.
Don’t worry Nigel, the Uni-Parties have just written your election manifesto for you and it’s even more votes. You can run Keir & Kemi but you can’t hide🗳
The backlash, when local elections are eventually permitted, will be extinction-level for Labour.