I have one simple message for Labour: stop being cowards and give us back our vote.
In December, ministers announced that they were giving councils the power to request that their local elections be postponed. In total, 27 councils are expected to take up the offer, or already have, by Thursday’s deadline. My council, Thurrock, is one of them.
Last year, Thurrock was due to hold an “all-out” election following boundary changes. That meant every councillor should have faced the voters.
Even those elected just a year earlier. That was the deal. Democracy 101.
Last night, on 13 January, Thurrock Council’s Cabinet met and unanimously agreed, once again, to ask for our local elections to be postponed for another year. Let that sink in.
For the second year in a row, local people are being denied their right to vote, denied their right to hold councillors to account, and denied their chance to pass judgement on a council that has already disgraced itself. To call this a disgrace would be putting it mildly.
This decision hands councillors up to two extra years in office without facing the people who pay their expenses. Even more conveniently, 16 councillors elected in 2022 will now exceed the traditional four-year term.
Coincidentally, this includes the Labour leader of the council, Cllr Lynn Worrall, and the Conservative group leader, Cllr George Coxshall. Funny how that works.
Cancelling elections is the last gasp of a coward who is on a hiding to nothing - Sophie Corcorani
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Let’s not insult voters by pretending this is about “capacity” or “cost”. Thurrock is shaping up to be a Reform UK stronghold. Current polling suggests Reform would lead Labour by over 20.5 per cent, lead the Conservatives by 26 per cent, and beat Labour by 28 per cent in the South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency, which includes several Thurrock council wards.
With an all-out election, it is entirely plausible Labour would end up with zero seats. Suddenly, elections are “too difficult”. Suddenly, democracy is “too expensive”. What a coincidence, aye.
One excuse offered is that the council does not have the capacity to run elections. That is not a justification; it is an admission of failure.
Elections are not secret. Councils know exactly when they are due, and planning for them is part of the job. This excuse is now being echoed across the country, with local elections being cancelled because they are supposedly too costly.
All elections cost money. If cost were a valid reason to cancel them, we would not have elections at all. And if saving money really mattered, the Government would not have embarked on a costly, totally unnecessary local government reorganisation program that they are manifestly incapable of delivering.
Let’s be clear about what this really is. This has nothing to do with balancing the books. It is about protecting political careers. Keir Starmer knows his party is weak.
He knows voters are angry. He knows he is toast. Instead of facing the ballot box, Labour are trying to dodge it. That is pure cowardice.
Cancelling elections and undermining democracy should be career-ending. Anyone who asks for democracy to be delayed, and anyone who signs it off, has no place in public life. Starmer has crossed a line. He needs to man up, put his big-boy pants on, and give us back our votes.
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