Reform UK Can Challenge Starmer's Election Cancellation Bid, Judge Rules

Reform can challenge Sir Keir Starmer’s attempt to cancel some local elections in May, a judge has ruled. In a ruling at the High Court, Mr Justice Chamberlain temporarily blocked the Prime Minister from changing the date of the votes. Sir Keir was preparing to postpone polls for thousands of voters using an obscure clause in the 2000 Local Government Act. Labour faced a potential wipe out if elections in their areas were to go ahead. The Telegraph’s Campaign for Democracy has called for the clause to be scrapped and for ministers to seek a full parliamentary vote for any delays. The legal challenge was brought earlier this month by Reform UK against the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Telegraph understands there will now be a full hearing on the issue on Feb 19 and Feb 20. The Government has claimed that it needed to give some councils the option of delaying elections because they are facing major restructuring under a programme to abolish some district councils and introduce mayoralties. However, the Electoral Commission, the independent watchdog, has suggested this does not constitute the sort of “exceptional circumstance” that would justify postponement. Almost four million people across the south and east of England could be denied a vote as a result of Labour’s attempt to cancel elections. Twenty-eight councils applied to postpone the elections, scheduled for May, with 22 of them being Labour-run. On Tuesday, Darren Jones, the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary, suggested it would be too “costly” for the elections to go ahead. If residents were to vote in the May elections, Mr Jones said they would have to “redo it five minutes later” because of the reorganisation of councils, which would waste resources. He told LBC: “We’re not frightened of democracy. Councils themselves were able to request a delay, a short delay, to their elections, if they’re going through a reorganisation. And a number of councils have asked for that. “This isn’t the Government imposing it on councils. Councils have asked for it. And some MPs across the House, presumably in those local areas, may have different views to their councils. “They’re perfectly entitled to represent their constituency view on that. But the key point here is that if a council is reorganising, you don’t want to go through a costly set of elections for a number of councillors and then have to redo it five minutes later because you’ve changed the boundaries of the council.” Mr Jones admitted that he could understand frustration at the slow pace of the reorganisation, which will take three years to complete. “I don’t disagree with the sentiment, but that’s what I’m told it requires, probably because of constitutional changes and finance systems and HR and job contracts and all that type of stuff. I would rather it be quicker than that,” he added. Labour majorities on 10 councils would be wiped out if cancelled elections were to go ahead, analysis for The Telegraph found last week. Sir Keir’s party would lose half of the seats it is due to defend in May, according to a “mega-poll” of 5,000 voters by JL Partners. Writing in The Telegraph, Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, branded the delays “the stuff of banana republics”. A Reform UK spokesman said: “We said we would fight Labour every step of the way on this and we are. Labour are disgracefully trying to deny democracy. We are determined to win this case next month.”