The parliamentary recess ought to buy Keir Starmer a bit of much-needed breathing space. But the Prime Minister has suffered an unwelcome rebuff today on his plans to reorganise local government. Amid protests at his plans, a legal showdown was planned for Thursday on proposals to delay 30 council elections across the North and South of England. Yet barely 72 hours ahead of that court deadline, officials threw in the towel, conceding that those elections could now go ahead. It marks a significant victory for Reform UK, who launched the lawsuit, and risks exacerbating the scale of Labour losses on 7 May.
Make no mistake: this is a blow to ministers and a boost to their critics
Under the terms of the ruling, the government has agreed to pay Reform’s legal costs relating to the proceedings, which are understood to cost at least £100,000. In a letter to council leaders, Steve Reed, the Housing Secretary, said officials had written to the High Court to confirm he had decided to withdraw the original decision. The statement said:
The secretary (of) state invited the housing minister, who was not involved in the initial decision-making, to reconsider the position afresh on a very urgent basis, recognising the pressing timescales involved. The housing minister has decided that the elections should proceed in May 2026.
There were originally 136 local elections across England that were scheduled for May. Of these, 63 were eligible to request a postponement due to local government reorganisation, and in January it was announced that 30 would be delayed. ‘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,’ a spokesman for Reed’s department said tonight.
Make no mistake: this is a blow to ministers and a boost to their critics. A veritable smorgasbord of territory now looks fertile for Reform, with various county councils in the East and South now up for grabs. Promising turf for Nigel Farage’s forces includes Burnley and Chorley borough councils and Harlow and Thurrock in Essex – the onetime true-blue home of Thatcherism which is now flirting with teal. ‘We were always confident the two-year delays would be stopped,’ said one senior aide to Nigel Farage minutes after the ruling was declared.
But to get a complete victory surpasses our expectations. This is one of the biggest defeats anyone has inflicted on the government – because of what it leads to in May.
In the estimate of one Reform source, today’s ruling means that an additional 20 Labour-dominated councils are now at risk. Among the grassroots, there is a sense of jubilation at the decision. That is a stark contrast to the feeling among Labour aides, who bitterly resent having to face such a rebuff on the first day of recess. Rightly or wrongly, Starmer’s administration has come to be characterised as one of lawyers. Today is a reminder that the government’s best and brightest are as likely to fall down at a judicial challenge as any of their Tory predecessors.
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