By David Furness
Democracy is under attack as four million are set to lose the right to vote.
The Labour Government plans to deny four million people the vote in the May 2026 local elections. It intends to cancel at least 27 council elections, so hundreds of Labour Party councillors will avoid the humiliation of being kicked out of office.
Keir Starmer is frightened because the latest opinion polls show a near-total collapse in Labour’s support.
Opposition parties will launch a Judicial Review to stop the postponement of the elections.
Judicial Review
Judicial review is a type of legal case where a judge reviews the lawfulness and fairness of a decision or action made by a public authority. Public authorities include local councils, government departments and Ministers, police forces, and health authorities.
Starmer relies on a little-known clause in the 2000 Local Government Act, which allows delaying votes only in truly ‘exceptional circumstances’, raising concerns that this legal provision could be misused to manipulate elections.
He claims that councils should be allowed to delay elections if they face major restructuring, such as the abolition of some district councils and the introduction of Mayors. However, the Electoral Commission has indicated that these ‘restructurings’ do not constitute ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Predictably, the overwhelming majority of councils that want to postpone elections are Labour-run.
Labour-led Norwich City Council has asked the government to suspend its May 2026 election, ahead of a shake-up of local government. The leader of the Council, Michael Stonard, dismissed any opposition to Labour’s plan as “hysterical”, but he forgot to add that Labour Party councillors face a collapse in their vote share if the May 2026 elections go ahead.
Kai Stephens, the Norfolk branch organiser for the British Democrats, said, “Democracy in Norfolk, Norwich, and the rest of Britain is severely under attack. In Norwich the Labour Party was set to lose serious ground to both the Greens and Reform, leading to a Green Party majority council.
The plans for devolution are out of touch, as well as ineffective. The ward sizes will expand drastically which will make campaigning much more difficult for smaller parties, also merging Norfolk County Council and Norwich City Council will mean less specialised, less localised, and therefore less effective councillors.
This is the Labour Party’s way of trying to delay the inevitable; their total wipe-out in Norwich City, which remains as one of their few remaining strongholds.”
Labour’s devious plan is that their ‘restructuring’ will mean votes in densely populated urban areas (typically Labour-voting) will swamp the votes in rural areas (generally non-Labour-voting).
Allowing politicians to block electors from voting undermines democratic fairness and will erode public trust in our electoral system.
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