Disastrous results and polling so far said to be behind decision to use ‘strategic authority’ manoeuvre to avoid accountability
Keir Starmer’s government is to cancel many or all local authority elections next year and put them back to 2026 or 2027, local government minister Jim McMahon confirmed – as vaguely as he could get away with – today in the Commons.
McMahon had given vague answers to media outlets before the Commons debate on the government’s ‘English Devolution’ White Paper, which will amalgamate county and other councils into so-called ‘strategic authorities’ – a plan many consider will make many people subject to authorities physically and experientially distant from them – hinting that the cancellation of next year’s elections was likely but without committing clearly.
However, asked today by a Tory MP whether he was willing to rule out such cancellations, McMahon still wriggled and claimed to be direct while still padding his language as much as he could, but admitted that’s the plan:
In all things I try to be direct, and I have been direct in saying that if those councils that come to the Government with a request for reorganisation meet the test and have a credible programme in place, the elections will likely not take place until the year after, because they will be postponed to elect the shadow authority that would replace the county and the districts. We are clear on that. To give the hon. Lady assurance, there will not be a mass cancelling of elections for the sake of it
‘There will not be a mass cancellation for the sake of it’, but all councils that ‘credibly’ come forward – again entirely subjective – will not have local elections next May. McMahon’s logic is unsound – presumably he knows it – because local elections can easily be held in plenty of wards and districts that would not exist by the time the full term was served, to ensure voters are not denied their say.
But Keir Starmer’s and his party’s polling is so catastrophic – and recent local election results have seen such drastic collapses – that Starmer is said to be terrified of an electoral thrashing in May that would end his already-shredded credibility completely. Using the devolution paper as cover for a widespread cancellation of local elections is an opportunity to hide from voters and accountability that he is grasping with both shaky hands.
Starmer’s contempt for democracy was already clear from the moment he got the opportunity to have his faction repeatedly and habitually rig candidate selections and to kick out members who might not vote the way he wanted – and clearer still as soon as he began a war on freedoms of speech and protest, and on journalists who expose inconvenient truths about genocidal Israel.
Now he’s taking his war to the ballot box too, under the guise of ’empowering’ local people – but only a fool or a con artist would believe his excuses. Starmer promised Labour members more control over who would be their candidates then did the exact opposite, and it seems his spots remain unchanged when it comes to local elections too.
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Chick, chick, chick, chick chicken.
And when (not if) keef gets away with that…
This is the better future that wee gobshite told us he was voting for.
And this is the second post in, and the nonce case isn’t here…yet.
*Fifth post in
People across the country should organise Recall Votes in their Constituencies
AHH! now I see why our ‘honest, upright and trustworthy’ government has decided to unilaterally reshape a large portion of the country’s local authority structures … it’s to avoid having any elections! How very ‘democratic’ … NOT!
Now now, Julie.
Country before party an all that…😕
I’m sure there’s been an assessment made, and the conclusion is that we plebs don’t really mind foregoing a local election, whether we were asked or not.
As I said on here more than a year ago “The most dangerous man in UK politics, bar none.
What does it matter anyway?
You won’t be getting a socialist labour candidate for your ward, as either keef’s got rid, or they’ve done the Frank (bough).
After the shitshow of the last four years, anyone claiming to be a socialist candidate while wearing the smarmerist rosette is no such thing, and shouldn’t be trusted.
Has a Smarmerist ever claimed to be a socialist? Surely they’d’ve been fired on the spot!
‘A Labour wipeout it is coming.
Just see Germany.
Right Wing Lab think they can placate capital but are too lumpen to learn.
And it’s so plain for all to see.’
Capital might give them a 2nd term if they can effectively police diverse working class & grassroots t union militancy.
Or go for their 1st X1 and the now more extreme Tories or Reform.
Heads they win, tails they win.
Unless some left wing democratic socialist leaders with vision form a new party.
Chicken Starmer: on the menu but never on the plate.
I like to remind people of McMahon’s Parliamentary career. He was, first, elected on the 03 Dec 2015 – Jeremy Corbyn’s first By-election, as Leader, after the sad death of Michael Meacher.
JC, virtually, lived in Oldham during the election campaign, to help him get elected, even, though McMahon had supported Liz Kendall, during the Leadership Contest – that should have been a warning to everyone.
McMahon increased the Labour majority by 7%, over the majority achieved by Michael Meacher, just, months before, at the General Election. A foretaste of things to come, during GE2017.
He promptly ‘thanked’ JC for his efforts, by joining the ‘chicken coup’, supporting Owen Smith(who he?).
Probably, his worst mistake was in agreeing to become PPS to the Party’s Deputy Leader, at the time Tom Watson.
…and, now? He busies himself on continuing to climb that greasy Parliamentary pole, trotting along behind Starmer, carrying out his orders and tugging his forelock, with the worst of them.
Seems like Sir Rodney is using Ukraine’s Zelenskyy as a role model. What next. Ban some political opposition? Make himself PM indefinitely? Banish some religious groups? What next, and where will it end?
Surely he cant cancel elections
As a country our local elections are the the way we can voice our issues.
“Suspending” democratic elections is only ever justified during a covid-like fake PHEIC (Public Health Emergency of International Concern).
Bird Flu: The “Next Pandemic” is right on schedule – they just haven’t told us yet!
https://off-guardian.org/2024/12/07/bird-flu-the-next-pandemic-is-right-on-schedule/
Alternatively, Starmer could just SACK Reeves, rectify her “black hole” errors*, act “for the Many, not the Few” and face future elections confidently and successfully:
Rectifying Reeves =
* Abolish the ‘two child rule’
*. Cancel the 50% rise in bus fares
*. Increase in Child Benefit
*. Raise the £10 ‘Christmas Bonus’ to levels worthy of a Corbyn Government (£100 pp?)
*. Review all State Pensions and other benefits and raise to ‘cost of living’ crisis levels.
*. Rescind Czech Billionaire’s purchase of Royal Mail, restate his commitment to the Universal Service and return RM to fuller state control.
*. Freeze all rail fares
*. Introduce a national Council Tax Benefit Scheme
He could even remove Wes Streeting from the Ministry of Underfunding the National Health Service (or whatever the Dept of Health is called these days) and apologise profusely keeping shtum about genocide in Gaza and tasking the RAF to assist a certain rogue state in the Middle East.
And, you know what? Badenoch and Farage would not be in Downing Street by July 2029 – cos he would be.
ooooh – rushing – forgot, he should also Restore Winter Fuel payments and remove section 12 from the Terrorism Act 2000.
Not going to happen, is it?
Abolish Bedroom Tax, freeze rents and bring Local Housing Allowance in line
The £10 Christmas bonus was brought in, I think, by Ted Heath in 1972.
£10 in 1972 would be in the region of £150 today, I would think.
(Prices rose 16.25 times between 1969 (when the 50p piece was introduced) and 2019. The Guardian did an article to mark its 50th anniversary.
What’s next? Some sort of ‘Royal Commission” to “make ‘our democracy’ fit for the 21st century” which necessitates the indefinite suspension of Parliamentary elections until it reaches a decision?
What happens when the Kleptocracy has decided heads we win Tails you lose
Every aspect of civil society has been bought and paid for
There is precisely nothing to vote for
Starmer’s government claims that this is merely about re-organising local government. And so it is important to frame it as this article has done. It might cause them to back off.
So much for decentralisation and local power. BTW, how does this square with Rayner overruling locally elected officers regarding house-building?