Well, the situation has changed once again. I, like so many others, am delighted local elections are now back on across the country after the latest Labour Government U-turn.
Mims Davies MP - 🗳️ Democracy is back - the Local... | Facebook
Since my last statement on this issue, which you can read here,
Mims Davies MP Statement on Local Elections | Mims Davies
several constituents have written to me asking why the Conservative Party in Westminster have been calling for local elections to go ahead while some Conservative led councils, notably here in West and East Sussex, had seemingly asked for them to be postponed which looked at odds with our national message. Some constituents have said we should have supported them in their decision, others that we should have ‘made’ them have elections.
In the Conservative Party, we do value independent voices, debate and real local representation rather than a centrally imposed, authoritarian consensus. While I didn’t fully agree with the decision, I recognised and understood these Sussex councils and their situation - before this latest shambles by the Labour Government, they had decided to sign up to the Devolution Priority Programme staggering the new mayoral election, set for May 2026, with a one year postponement of local elections while undergoing a massive local government reorganisation. Each area and situation is unique and Labour have divided communities and confused voters and importantly, my constituents.
Let me be clear; I absolutely did not support the mass cancellation of local elections across the country at the last minute by a Labour Government running scared of the electorate due to its inept and frankly, destructive policies. That, and the cancellation of our Mayoral election in May, is simply unacceptable and unexplainable. So, yes - it was the Conservative Party position nationally that we should look to go ahead with local elections. Before the announcement yesterday, Conservative peers had even tabled an amendment to enable elections to go ahead.
However, the council leadership in West and East Sussex (along with Leadership from Brighton and Hove), while belonging to the Conservative Party, is not instructed or controlled by the national party and is entitled, rightly, to make independent decisions they feel are best for their locality. This is part of the democratic settlement.
As I mentioned earlier, their decision to postpone local elections was made as part of the package deal put forward by the then Deputy Prime Minister Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, in her Devolution Priority Programme way back in February 2025, rather than in the 2026 mass cancellation of local elections by the Labour Government as many have been led to believe.
The councils here in Sussex had signed up in good faith to ‘get on board’ the Labour Government’s huge reorganisation plans (which are, unsurprisingly, still not fully developed) early in order to get the best outcomes for residents rather than being at the mercy of the Government’s, now widely known to be notoriously poor, choices. This meant having mayoral elections while the major reorganisation was going on in the background. County council elections would be postponed for one year to avoid the position of potentially untrained or inexperienced councillors being elected for only one year with the inevitable, possibly serious, disruption to our essential services. However, due to the Labour Government’s now expected disorganisation and dithering, they abruptly cancelled the planned Mayoral election due this May – there is still no proper indication when this will now be held. Then in December 2025, they chose to postpone huge swathes of local elections right across the country, most of which have different timeframes for local government reorganisation and/or had no mayoral elections planned as Sussex did.
In defence of our Sussex councils, they have now been caught up in a political firestorm created by this Labour Government when they have a completely different backstory in which they had been trying to manage a huge change to the local political organisation being imposed on them and hold a new set of mayoral elections (again cancelled at the last minute) while trying not to disrupt the running of vital services. While I was always disappointed by the decision, I did understand the reasoning of the Sussex council leadership and I do believe it was made with good intentions and to make the best of a very difficult situation on behalf of residents, with mayoral elections planned for 2026 and the newly structured local government elections pushed back to 2027.
However, here we are. The Labour Government has, once again, made life harder for everyone. Local elections will be held in May 2026. This is an opportunity for you, the taxpayers, to be reminded who runs councils well and we Conservatives will never be afraid of making the argument on the doorstep. I say again, the Conservative Party is ready to contest, to fight any election. We have our candidates. We don’t hide away. We are ready. We trust the British people and will respect their choice. I am already out campaigning!
As Conservatives, we deliver better services, care about our communities and respect tax payers' hard-earned money. Voters have a choice in May and the voters are never wrong. We will work hard to gain trust and support, as I do daily as your local MP.
