Politics live: Labour bracing for local election wipeout after Starmer cancellation U-turn, poll finds

Political correspondent Athena Stavrou reports:

Reform’s head of policy has called on the government to publish the legal advice they received which led them to abandon plans to postpone elections in 30 local councils.

Zia Yusuf said it was “in the public interest” to publish the advice, which was given in response to Reform England’s legal challenge.

“The letter in which they announced that they were throwing in the towel and accepting that the elections could go ahead stated that this was ‘in the light of new evidence and that they would not broadcast it, reserving their privilege in the matter’,” he told LBC.

“I think it’s going to be in all of our public interest to see that, I think I know what this new legal advice is going to be, they’re going to lose.”

The Telegraph’s poll suggests that Labor’s majority in ten local authorities will disappear as elections are held in 30 areas.

Labor had initially announced plans to cancel elections in 30 areas this year, affecting 4.5 million people, to create “capacity” to overhaul council structures.

• Reform England leader Nigel Farage will announce the members of his party’s shadow cabinet team at a press conference in Westminster.
• A hearing will be held for MP Rupert Lowe’s legal challenge against the parliamentary watchdog.
• Rupert Lowe, the independent MP for Great Yarmouth, is seeking to bring High Court legal action against the Independent Complaints and Complaints Scheme over its decision to investigate a complaint made against him last July.

Asked whether he should apologize for the potential cost to taxpayers of both footing the bill for legal fees and holding elections that had to be postponed, Mr Farage said: “The idea of ​​apologising, because the idea that it costs money to hold an election in a country where a million and a half people have died in two world wars so that we can have a free democracy, I won’t even begin to apologize.

“That’s our system. That’s our way. We elect the people who represent us, they tax us, we make decisions on our behalf and we have the right to judge them and get rid of them every few years. That’s the basis of how modern Britain works.”

Councils in Lincoln, Exeter, Norwich, Peterborough and Preston were among those not voting on May 7, along with several areas including Cannock Chase, Harlow, Welwyn Hatfield and West Lancashire.

Polling day for county council voters in East Sussex, West Sussex, Norfolk and Suffolk has also been postponed.