Well, well, well. Labour’s decision to cancel four mayoral elections by two years is not going down well, to put it lightly. The government has pushed back elections due to take place in May – in Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Sussex and Brighton, and Norfolk and Suffolk – until 2028. Sir Keir Starmer’s crowd has blamed the delay on local authorities needing more time to merge, in a bid to give regions more power. But the government’s opponents are rather unhappy about the palaver…
Reform UK has called an emergency press conference today to discuss the changes, with leader Nigel Farage saying: ‘The whole local government reorganisation is a dog’s dinner.’ Deputy leader Richard Tice accused Labour of a ‘dictatorial cancelling of democracy’, telling the Beeb’s Today programme:
There is just a fear of how successful Reform are doing. They’ve been talking about these mayoral elections for years and years. They’ve been getting ready. Our candidates have been spending money already, getting going. People have been campaigning, leafleting.
And I think millions of people, over seven million people, who were furious at having elections cancelled last May are now, frankly, wondering what sort of democracy we’re living in where the government can just cancel yet more elections willy nilly.
In fact, just before the news broke, Chris Parry – an ex-Royal Navy officer – was unveiled as Reform’s mayoral candidate for Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and the Solent. Parry claimed he had a ‘great chance of winning’, and hoped to join Reform’s two other mayors – Dame Andrea Jenkyns in Greater Lincolnshire and boxer Luke Campbell in Hull and East Yorkshire. His campaigning will, however, now have to wait…
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