On Monday 16 December, deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Angela Rayner announced the Labour Party government’s devolution redesign plans. So, cue Reform Party members losing their shit – because they think Labour is doing this to stop them winning election. Of course Labour is…
Labour’s devolution: not what it seems
Specifically, as the BBC reported, in a white paper the government published on Monday, it laid out its plans to:
move towards unitary councils across all of England, with areas that currently have two tiers being asked to draw up merger proposals.
Ministers see streamlining local government as a way to enable the creation of more powerful local mayors. This is in an attempt to unblock infrastructure and attract greater investment.
Elected mayors would then oversee areas representing two or more councils, and would have more powers over things such as planning decisions and public transport.
Labour is claiming that these devolution deals will usher in greater local democracy. However, there was some consternation over the proposals.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay was severely unimpressed by Labour’s plans:
This proposal is a dangerous erosion of local democracy. It steals power from communities & risks alienating people from the democratic process – the opposite of devolution
Local communities need genuine decentralisation of powers & funding to improve homes, services & nature…
— Adrian Ramsay MP (@AdrianRamsay) December 16, 2024
But it was the fact this devolution plan would mean postponing 2025 local elections in some areas caused the biggest stir.
Local government minister Jim McMahon told Nick Ferrari on LBC that some could be cancelled.
Cue Reform making it all about them:
This is outrageous! It appears Labour are so terrified of Reform surging in the polls, they’re plotting to cancel local elections in 2025.
Labour called Reform a “threat to democracy”, but it’s Labour who are the real threat to democracy.
Shameful. pic.twitter.com/zj1LmskGZj
— Lee Harris (@addicted2newz) December 16, 2024
The issue here isn’t that Labour is diddling Reform goons out of some local government seats. The party’s gormless crop of Reform candidates will do that without Labour’s help. The problem is that Labour is stopping local elections from taking place in the first place. Meaning of course that it’s denying the ELECTORATE its voice at local elections.
X was full of understandable cynicism over the move. Why on earth would Labour seek to do that? Nothing to do with its dire tanking in the polls since it took power, surely:
I’ve given the new Government the benefit of the doubt, but cancelling elections because of merging Councils? Not a fan. And some of the Councils proposed are just too big – Bucks/N Yorks/Somerset haven’t been successes so far. https://t.co/YJYoZlAwmL
— Ric Brackenbury (@ric_mk) December 16, 2024
Labour in government already running scared of the electorate. https://t.co/EqyFRtmMOo
— Joe Guinan (@joecguinan) December 16, 2024
I cannot emphasise how catastrophic in the current political climate this would be. https://t.co/oxcu6aNdDG
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) December 16, 2024
Reform: no, it’s not about you
Once again, it’s the public that Labour is screwing over. Local elections are already a joke – with most drawing in less than a 30% turnout. This is because the public views them as unimportant, thanks to the focus always being on national politics – when actually, who runs your council is quite often as important as who is sitting in Westminster.
Naturally though, it’s the paragon of democracy Reform that’s the real victim here. No irony at all in a party with a chequered history of flouting electoral rules and processes whining about this.
However, it’s no surprise its right-wing base is claiming its the most hard done by with the cancellation of local elections.
After all, that’s Reform writ large.
Feature image via
