Keir Starmer defends U-turn on plans to delay some local elections

Sir Keir Starmer said the decision to postpone dozens of May council elections had been “locally led” as he defended the Government’s U-turn on the plans after further legal advice.

Votes in 30 English councils had been postponed to help town halls through a major reorganisation of local government.

But the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on Monday reinstated the elections after receiving advice from lawyers following a legal challenge by Reform UK.

The Prime Minister appeared to suggest responsibility for the original decisions to postpone the votes lay with the local authorities, when he was asked during a visit to South Wales about councils now being left scrambling to organise polls at short notice due to his Government’s change of mind.

Sir Keir said: “Well, I think it’s important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally led decision, in the sense that each authority could decide.

“And, yes, Labour authorities came forward to say, ‘please delay’, but so did Tory authorities, so did Lib Dem authorities.

“In relation to the position, we took further legal advice and, as you would expect as a Government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.”

It is the latest in a series of policy U-turns since Sir Keir arrived in Downing Street 19 months ago and comes as the Prime Minister is under intense scrutiny amid questions over his political future.

The major policy reversals include deciding to restrict the previously universal winter fuel payment to pensioner households receiving means-tested benefits, and then changing course and restoring it to all pensioners earning £35,000 or less a year.

And Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ plans to levy inheritance tax on farmers’ assets worth more than £1 million resulted in another climbdown when she raised the threshold to £2.5 million.

The Government has agreed to pay Reform UK’s legal costs after the party challenged the initial decision to postpone the votes.

The decision to reinstate elections was made “following legal advice”, an MHCLG spokesperson said.

They added: “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.”

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed wrote to council leaders, telling them he recognised “that many of the local councils undergoing reorganisation voiced genuine concerns about the pressure they are under”.

He announced up to £63 million in capacity funding to the 21 areas undergoing reorganisation across the whole programme, in addition to £7.6 million provided for developing proposals last year.

“I will shortly set out further detail about how that funding will be allocated,” Mr Reed said.

But authorities now face “an unnecessary race against time to ensure elections proceed smoothly and fairly, with polling stations booked and electoral staff available,” District Councils’ Network chairman Richard Wright said.