Labour has been accused of “running scared” from Reform UK at the ballot box after it emerged that local elections in a number of the surging party’s target areas are at risk of cancellation.
This morning, local government minister Jim McMahon said some local elections next year may not go ahead as local authorities could be closed or merged – prompting fury from Reform, which has seen success across a range of council votes, even from a “standing start”.
Then, LBC revealed that Kent, Essex, Lancashire, Hertfordshire and Sussex were areas in which Labour is considering calling off local elections as part of Angela Rayner’s “devolution” drive.
But with Reform targeting seats all over the country ahead of the May elections, the party and its leading figures have issued a series of dire warnings over Labour’s “threat to democracy”.
Labour is considering calling off local elections across England as part of Angela Rayner’s ‘devolution’ drive, LBC reports
PA
A spokesman for the party told GB News: “It’s quite clear these elections are potentially being cancelled because of the rise of Reform.
“They’re running scared of the ballot box. Labour know the only way they can avoid losing the elections is if they cancel them.”
While party chairman Zia Yusuf wrote on social media: “First, Labour’s former Deputy PM Baroness Harman claims Reform is a ‘threat to democracy’ for having the gall to offer British voters a real alternative.
“She specifically talked about how poorly Labour were doing in Council by-elections. Today, a Labour minister talks about literally dispensing with local elections.
“This authoritarian Labour government are a threat to democracy.”
LATEST ON REFORM UK:
Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf accused Sir Keir Starmer of ‘governing like a despot’
REUTERS
McMahon had also said that “at the moment” the elections are going ahead – but said it is “usual when there is a request for a reorganisation that elections don’t take place to a council that does not exist”.
He added that there would be a statutory consultation before any authorities are changed – but said some had already requested reorganisation.
Yusuf laid into Labour again in another scathing attack on the devolution shake-up.
“Labour are trying to stop the English County Council Elections,” he said. “The day after Harriet Harman talked about how poorly they were doing in by-elections.
“Starmer is governing like a despot.”
Despite her “threat to democracy” warning, Baroness Harman had praised Reform’s by-election surges just days ago, pointing to several cases in which the party had taken in “40 per cent support… from a standing start” while Labour’s vote share slumped.
The ex-interim Labour leader also issued a broader prediction about Nigel Farage’s party’s future success.
“I feel quite conflicted about this because I don’t want to talk up Reform,” she told Sky News.
“But I actually think that Reform are going to replace the Conservatives at the next election because they seem to have an argument and they seem to know what that argument is.”
