‘They’re petrified’: Reform in row with Labour over delayed local elections ...Middle East

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has accused the Government of plotting to cancel roughly half of May’s council elections to slow the party’s momentum.

Deputy leader Richard Tice told The i Paper that opposition parties are “petrified” of Reform’s chances of success at the local elections – scheduled for 1 May.

In mid-December, the Government revealed that some local elections could be delayed for up to a year for some authorities being overhauled as part of Labour’s devolution plans, which will see some smaller councils combined into bigger “strategic authorities” with more sway over their areas.

English councils involved in Labour’s regional devolution plans have until 10 January to request a local election postponement.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), which is run by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, said no decisions on cancelling any local elections would be taken until all requests had been received by Friday’s deadline.

In cases where Rayner does permit local election delays it is understood she will argue they were necessary to avoid confusing voters while the authority in question undergoes reorganisation. Reform has now argued the move represents a plot to thwart its electoral fortunes following the growth in the party’s membership that saw it overtake the Conservative Party during the Christmas break.

Tice said: “We think that we could do really well in the elections that actually do take place, given that, obviously, quite a lot of them are being postponed a year because the Tories are petrified, as are the Labour Party.”

The Government has not confirmed which local elections will be postponed to allow for restructuring.

But Tice claims more than half of the elections scheduled in 2,240 council seats across 32 councils could be postponed to allow councils to prepare for the enlargement process.

“My hunch is that, of the 2,240 English seats due to be up for grabs, I’d be surprised half actually take place,” the businessman-turned-politician added.

“As we surge in the polls and head towards a great local elections result wouldn’t it be such a coincidence that many of those elections are cancelled? Wow! What a coincidence.”

Another leading Reform figure suggests the delay could be presented as a decision to help prepare for the local authority shake-up while helping some councils avoid an election battle with her party.

Dame Andrea Jenkyns, Reform’s candidate for the new Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, said postponing any local elections would be a “denial of democracy by Labour”.

Lincolnshire is one of six new mayoralties being planned by Labour – a race Reform believes it can win, not least because voters in the county elected Tice as the MP for Boston and Skegness at last July’s general election.

Unlike the threatened postponement of some local council elections, the election of the new regional mayors will go ahead.

“If a local council – Labour, Liberal Democrat or Tory – recommends to the Government that they should postpone their local elections, then there will be a lot of push back against them,” Jenkyns told The i Paper.

“So, if elections are cancelled four months before they’re due to happen, I think there will be a reaction from voters against whichever party controls any of those councils, and that may well actually work in our favour.”

Conservative Councillor Martin Hill, the leader of Lincolnshire County Council, said he was “anticipating the county council elections to be held as planned in May”.

He added: “I believe some elections could be postponed for one year to enable devolution to happen. That doesn’t apply in Greater Lincolnshire as we have already achieved our deal.”

“No decisions have been taken,” said the MHCLG spokesman. “We will only consider postponing elections for areas where the council concerned has requested it and where it helps an area to deliver reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeline.”

The Government will decide on postponing elections for areas where the council concerned has requested it.

It is understood that Rayner will permit election postponements in councils that are restructuring through the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme or where reorganisation is necessary to unlock devolution or open up new devolution options.

Any postponements to local elections would not be the first time such a decision has been taken.

In May 2021, local elections in three English counties were postponed until May 2022 as a result of a local authority restructuring by the then-Conservative Government.

Cumbria, Somerset and North Yorkshire all postponed their elections before becoming unitary authorities.

The Local Government Association, which represents the interests of councils in England and Wales, declined to comment.

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