LBC host Nick Ferrari conflict as Tories slammed with brutal three-word insult
Stephen Kinnock, a government minister, admitted the decision to abandon plans to postpone local elections for councils in May was “not ideal” in a live radio interview
LBC’s Nick Ferrari accused the Government of making too many U-turns(Image: LBC)
A minister has thrown his weight behind Keir Starmer amid anger over a U-turn on cancelling local elections – warning that a return to the Tories’ “carousel of chaos” is not wanted.
Stephen Kinnock, a health minister, admitted the Government’s decision to abandon plans to postpone local elections for councils in May was “not ideal”. But he said Labour is a “government that works with the rule of law” as he defended ministers changing their position.
In a heated interview, LBC’s Nick Ferrari said the Labour administration was a “bloody shambles” and accused the government of making too many Government U-turns since being elected, such as on inheritance tax for farmers and compensation for WASPI women.
In a surprise U-turn yesterday, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said it had scrapped plans to delay votes until 2027 in 30 areas – impacting millions of people. The climbdown followed a legal challenge to the plans from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK with the taxpayer now forced to foot the bill for the party’s legal costs.
READ MORE: Keir Starmer U-turns on cancelling council elections after legal threat
It piles pressure on Keir Starmer who last week faced a serious challenge to his leadership amid the fallout of the Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Mr Kinnock slapped down Ferrari when asked if Labour needed a change in leadership from Mr Starmer. He said: “Keir Starmer is absolutely the right man to take us forward.
“Just think about the carousel of chaos that we had with the Tories. This is about government taking difficult decisions and sometimes the conditions change.”
Speaking about the latest U-turn, Mr Kinnock said the decision to postpone elections in 30 areas was put through on the basis of original legal advice. He continued: “That legal advice has now changed. That is not ideal. I’m not going to stand here and pretend to you that it is. But we’re a government that works with the rule of law.”
Yesterday, an MHCLG spokesman said: “Following legal advice, the Government has withdrawn its original decision to postpone 30 local elections in May.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.”
The government has written to all affected councils to confirm elections on May 7. City councils in Lincoln, Exeter, Norwich, Peterborough and Preston had been among those where ballots were not to take place.
Communities Secretary Steve Reed told them: “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.”
He announced plans to provide an extra £63million pot of cash to 21 local authorities undergoing structural change.
Councils face a “race against time” to organise reinstated local elections, the body representing ballot organisers has said.
Laura Lock, deputy chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, said: “We are extremely disappointed returning officers, electoral registration officers and electoral administration teams have lost months of essential planning time for reinstated May 7 elections.
“Local elections are highly complex – far more so than a general election, for instance. These teams now face an uphill struggle to catch up to where they should be. They have paused planning to avoid unnecessary cost, but this means they are now playing catch-up.”
