Labour accused of stopping 3.7 MILLION individuals from voting in May’s native elections as authorities postpones polls in 29 areas to ‘pace up’ main council reorganisation

Labour was today accused of preventing 3.7million people from voting in May’s local elections after it confirmed it will postpone polls in 29 areas of England.

Minister Steve Reed confirmed that elections would be rolled over into 2027 to ‘speed up’ Labour‘s planned reorganisation of councils into one tier.

The Government last month announced a total of 63 councils were being given the option to postpone, as it seeks to deliver one of the largest shake-ups in recent decades.

But Mr Reed came under fire in the Commons today as the Local Government Secretary confirmed that almost half would be allowed to do so. 

Shadow local government secretary James Cleverly today said the move would prevent 3.7 million people from casting votes in May.

He added: ‘What was it about the Labour Party’s collapse in the opinion polls that first attracted him to the cancelation of local elections?’

Labour wants to abolish the two-tier system of county and district councils in favour of new unitary authorities, which are expected to be up and running in 2028.

But opposition parties have claimed Labour is ‘running scared’ of voters by allowing a delay to May’s local elections, in which they are expected to perform poorly.

Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK is taking legal action against the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in opposition to the postponements.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is also against the move.

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed confirmed that almost half of councils due to hold election would be allowed to postpone them

He accused Mr Reed of ‘putting pressure on councils’ to cancel their elections, and argued that it is due to ‘the Labour Party’s collapse in the opinion polls’.

‘It is clear what he (Mr Reed) thinks,’ Mr Cleverly went on.

‘It is clear what he wants. He wants to cancel all these elections. So why does he not simply say so? Why does he not have the courage of his own convictions?

‘Why did he write to councils asking them to ask him to cancel the elections? And why, when they didn’t give him the answer that he wanted, did he write to them again asking basically the same question? Why was his department putting pressure on councils to ask for cancelations as late as last night? I know why. He knows why. We all know why.

‘It’s because he wants to shift the blame. He wants to say “I didn’t make them do it”. He wants a political gotcha. He is putting councils in an impossible position, squeezing them financially, imposing the cost and disruption of large scale reorganisation on them, making promises about structures, about timescales, about funding, and then reneging on those promises.

‘And then, to add insult to injury, trying to dump the consequences of his arrogance and incompetence onto the laps of the local councils.’

Referring to Mr Reed’s comments that the last Conservative government delayed elections because of reorganisation as well, he argued that ‘the scale and scope of these cancelations is totally unprecedented’.

Councillors in areas where elections are postponed will have their terms extended, the Local Government Secretary said.

Mr Reed told the Commons: ‘In areas where elections are postponed, existing councillors will have their terms extended for a short period.

‘Once the new unitary councils are agreed, we will hold elections to them in 2027.’

He added: ‘To those who say we’ve cancelled all the elections, we haven’t.

‘To those who say it’s all Labour councils, it isn’t.

‘I’ve asked, I’ve listened, and I’ve acted.

‘No messing about, no playing politics, just getting on with the job of making local government work better for local people.’