Sir Keir Starmer has sparked a furious backlash from Labour MPs after backtracking on his decision to cancel local elections for 4.5 million Britons.Housing Secretary Steve Reed confirmed yesterday that polls would now go ahead in 30 additional local authorities.The announcement leaves Labour scrambling to field candidates across wards that have been earmarked as fertile ground for both Reform UK and the Green Party.Labour MPs have now voiced their fury and fear that the party could suffer even greater losses on May 7.
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“Councillors feel like the rug has been taken from underneath them,” one Labour MP told The Guardian. “Now they will have to face angry electors.””Many didn’t want to cancel the elections,” another Labour MP said. “They felt pressurised into it and didn’t feel they had the resources to deliver the planned local government reorganisation too.”A poll conducted by JL Partners last month revealed that Labour could lose half of the wards it is defending in the 30 local authorities.The research also suggests that Labour could lose control of Blackburn & Darwen, Cannock Chase, Exeter, Preston and Worthing.Meanwhile, Reform UK could hoover up an extra 129 gains, with the Green Party also snatching 44 wards.Following yesterday’s U-turn, Mr Farage told GB News: “The Government obviously knew they were going to lose. “The boss of the Electoral Commission said what they’d done was illegal.LATEST DEVELOPMENTSNigel Farage calls on Steve Reed to RESIGN as he hails local election U-turnKeir Starmer claims he ‘didn’t know anything’ about smear scandal as PM delivers verdict on ministerKeir Starmer ABANDONS plan to cancel local elections after Nigel Farage launched legal action”Clearly, the Government’s own lawyers believe they’d acted illegally, and so they caved in and 4.6 million people, or should I say council taxpayers, will now get the vote.”So yes, it’s a legal victory. It’s a victory for our party, but above all, it’s a victory for freedom and democracy.”The Reform UK leader is now leading calls for Mr Reed to resign as Housing Secretary. Writing to local council leaders yesterday, Mr Reed said: “The Government can confirm that all local elections in May 2026 will now go ahead.”I recognise that many of the local councils undergoing reorganisation voiced genuine concerns about the pressure they are under as we seek to deliver the most ambitious reforms of local government in a generation.”I am therefore announcing today that we will provide up to £63million in additional capacity funding to the 21 local areas undergoing reorganisation across the whole programme, building on the £7.6million provided for developing proposals last year.”I will shortly set out further detail about how that funding will be allocated.”Labour previously claimed that the looming reorganisation of local authorities would make elections expensive, complicated and unnecessary.Mr Reed told GB News last month: “It’s not denying democracy… It’s speeding up elections to the new councils that will replace the councils that are being closed down. And I think that is sensible.”However, the Electoral Commission had raised particular concerns about the decision to enact “double delays” for West Sussex, East Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Surrey.Following Sir Keir’s 15th U-turn, a Government spokesman said: “Following legal advice, the Government has withdrawn its original decision to postpone 30 local elections in May.“Providing certainty to councils about their local elections is now the most crucial thing and all local elections will now go ahead in May 2026.”
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