MINISTERS must not delay local elections for over 3.5 million voters as there is no “sufficient reason”, the Electoral Commission head said.
Vijay Rangarajan, the chief executive of Britain’s electoral watchdog, criticised the decision to allow 30 local authorities to postpone elections due to have taken place in May.
Labour has sparked fury by allowing dozens of councils to delay their elections – with many polled to do well with Reform – for another year rather than hold them this May.
Ministers insist that this will allow them time to complete their reorganisation, with some authorities being merged into one.
Mr Rangarajan raised concerns that five councils – West Sussex, East Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Surrey – have “double delays”, which means their councillors will serve seven-year terms.
He told the Telegraph: “We would hope that no government would go and say that somehow elections are fungible with other parts of council money.
“It’s a fundamental point that they have to run elections on those timescales, and we would put the bar very high for postponement.”
Instead, he argued, elections should only be delayed if the council in question is to be abolished in the next year.
The Government is relying on an obscure clause in the 2000 Local Government Act that allows ministers to postpone elections.
Ministers have claimed the delays are needed because councils are being reorganised and mayoralties introduced.
But Mr Rangarajan said “capacity constraint” is not a “sufficient reason” for any delays.
Communities Secretary Steve Reed confirmed the decision to delay elections last month in a statement to MPs in the House of Commons.
It comes after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage recently said: “Denying elections is the disgraceful behaviour of a banana republic.” He also said it was an “abuse of power”.
Reform will have their legal challenge to the decision to delay elections heard in court next week.
Mr Rangarajan said this would help “clarify” the power of ministers granted by the Local Government Act 2000.
He added a “conflict of interest” existed as councillors were allowed to decide on whether elections are delayed.
Reform said in January: “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.”
Last month, Shadow Cabinet Minister James Cleverly accused Mr Reed of “putting pressure on councils” to cancel their elections and argued that it is due to “the Labour Party’s collapse in the opinion polls”.
But Mr Reed told MPs at the time that the vast majority of polls will take place in May as planned.
He said: “To those who say we’ve cancelled all the elections, we haven’t. To those who say it’s all Labour councils, it isn’t.
“I’ve asked, I’ve listened, and I’ve acted. No messing about, no playing politics, just getting on with the job of making local government work better for local people.”
Labour’s elections bill was also published this week which will lower the voting age and toughen rules on political finance.
