MHCLG has announced that it will abandon plans to cancel local elections in 30 councils after the threat of a legal challenge from Reform UK. The housing department says it has received “new legal advice” on the matter. Statement from the Government Legal Department:
“The Secretary of State has decided to withdraw his decision to postpone the council elections of 30 local councils due to take place in May 2026 in the light of recent legal advice (for the avoidance of doubt no privilege is waived).
The Secretary State invited the Housing Minister, who was not involved in the initial decision-making, to reconsider the position afresh on a very urgent basis recognising the pressing timescales involved. The Housing Minister has decided that the elections should proceed in May 2026.
The Secretary of State will seek to agree an order with the Claimant in the light of this announcement disposing of the claim and will agree to pay the Claimant’s costs of these proceedings.”
A substantial win for Nigel Farage…
UPDATE: Farage says:
“We took this Labour government to court and won.
In collusion with the Tories, Keir Starmer tried to stop 4.6 million people voting on May 7th.
Only Reform UK fights for democracy.”
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”