Labour prime minister Keir Starmer performed yet another abrupt U-turn yesterday when he was forced to abandon plans to cancel 30 local government elections in May this year.
Local government secretary Steve Reed’s announcement of plans to scrap these elections for a year has been reversed, following legal advice that the Labour government was likely to lose a legal challenge brought by Nigel Farage’s Reform party.
Reed told local government leaders on Monday: ‘The government can confirm that all local elections in May 2026 will now go ahead.’
He added: ‘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.’
Reed’s attempt to justify Labour depriving 4.5 million citizens of the right to vote didn’t impress many Labour MPs who had opposed the ban in the first place.
With most of the councils involved presently run by Labour, many saw it as a blatant attempt by Starmer to cut down the number of losses inflicted on the Labour Party in May’s elections.
Reed claimed the government had made its decision after receiving ‘recent legal advice’ that delaying the election was unlawful.
It beggars belief that lawyers didn’t provide similar advice to the Labour government before it decided to cancel these elections.
At the time, Starmer was focused on cutting back on losses that would spell the end of his job as prime minister, as workers and the middle class desert the Labour Party in droves leaving him facing a wipe-out.
Now, this abrupt abandonment of cancelling 30 local elections leaves the taxpayer having to cough up an estimated £63 million for local authorities that were affected to make sure they can deliver the elections and reforms intended to replace the existing two-tier system of district and county councils with new ‘unitary’ councils.
In addition, the government is paying out around £150,000 to cover Reform’s legal costs.
While many Labour MPs were predicting that Starmer would struggle on until May’s local elections put the final nail in his political coffin, it has become clear that the chances of him surviving until then are becoming increasingly remote.
Last week, Starmer clung on by the skin of his teeth following the forced resignation of Morgan McSweeney, his chief advisor and the man credited with propelling him into the leadership and leading the campaign to oust previous Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
McSweeney accepted full responsibility for ‘recommending’ disgraced Labour peer Peter Mandelson as US ambassador in a desperate attempt to shield Starmer from the fury of Labour MPs.
At the weekend, scandal again erupted when it transpired that the organisation Labour Together was accused of hiring a PR firm to dig up dirt on two journalists working for the Rupert Murdoch-owned Times newspaper.
Labour Together – which had been run by McSweeney when it was actively undermining Corbyn – was responding to an article in the Times that it had failed to declare £730,000 in donations linked to Starmer’s campaign to take over as Labour leader.
Labour Together was being run by current cabinet minister Josh Simons when it reportedly paid Apco Worldwide £36,000 to investigate the two journalists, an investigation which is claimed wrongfully accused them of being stooges for Russian security services.
Starmer on Sunday denied all knowledge about the Labour Together investigation, and said he had ordered the Cabinet Office to investigate these claims.
What emerges clearly from all the political corruption engulfing Starmer and the Labour government is that there is no other way out for the working class but to overthrow this weak, split and divided Labour government with a general strike.
Workers must demand an immediate emergency TUC Congress to organise a general strike to kick out the Starmer government and go forward to establish a workers government and socialism.
Join the WRP and Young Socialists to build up the leadership required for the victory of the British Socialist Revolution.
