Affecting some 5.5 million people, Keir Starmer’s government—which blasted the previous Conservative administration’s “contempt for democracy” in its election manifesto—has just ‘postponed’ many of this year’s local elections.
It said the one-year polling delay was to allow major reorganisations to take place in nine local authorities. But this reasoning does not appear to be convincing voters.
Instead, Nigel Farage’s party Reform UK—fresh from topping its first national poll—has pointed to the fact it seemed set to do particularly well in a number (if not all) of these council elections and has described Starmer’s actions as dictatorial.
Thanks to this, British newspapers have today suggested the cancellations are a “blow” to Reform. However, they could well result in higher voter turnout in these areas turning out when elections are eventually held. This could mean a larger protest vote against the government in Westminster than would have otherwise taken place.
Farage is also unlikely to be upset by the opportunity to label Labour—apparently reading from the playbook of Brussels’ leftist parties who claim to stand for democratic principles which they clearly loathe—as “panicked.”
In the same spirit, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s new tough talk on migration—after the party spent 14 years in government actually doing nothing—will be seen by almost all observers as another attempt to stem the tide of Reform.
Local elections had been set to take place within just a matter of weeks. Also controversially, council tax—collecting local authority funds from individual households—looks set to increase by at least five percent where voting has been postponed. This means that locals will not this year have the opportunity at the ballot box to say what they think about this.
Possibly the worst way this will impact Reform is by preventing it from accessing extra funds, received by securing local authority (‘council’) seats.
Farage also accused the Conservatives of responsibility for the cancellations which, he said, some of its councils supported in order to “keep the money rolling for at least another couple of years.”
Conservative shadow minister Kevin Hollinrake attempted to distance his party from Starmer’s directive, describing the “mass postponement” as a “worrying day for democracy.”
