Strip Whitehall of power to postpone local elections, Lord urges
A proposal to take away the Government’s ability to delay town hall ballots is to be debated in the Lords as part of proposed changes to English local government
Whitehall could be stripped of its power to postpone local elections if a peer’s bid is supported.
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A proposal to take away the Government’s ability to delay town hall ballots is to be debated in the Lords as part of proposed changes to English local government.
Lord Pack, who put forward the proposal to curb ministers’ power, told the Press Association: “We need those safeguards because the holding of elections is so fundamental to democracy.”
The Government can currently postpone local elections by using secondary legislation known as an order.
In February, it used an order to postpone 30 polls as part of a wider reorganisation of councils in England.
Four county council polls in Norfolk, Suffolk, East Sussex and West Sussex, and a unitary authority poll in Thurrock, Essex, would have been postponed for two years in a row.
But the Government U-turned on its decision and reinstated the elections on May 7 after it received fresh advice in response to a legal challenge by Reform UK.
Lord Pack’s amendment to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill would stop the Government laying orders to delay polling day.
If his proposal is written in to law, any future bids to postpone local elections would need to go through the full scrutiny process in Parliament and be agreed as part of an Act.
Lord Pack, a Liberal Democrat peer who was his party’s president until last year, said: “I’ve tabled the amendment to ensure any future cancellation of an election requires the full scrutiny and consent of Parliament via primary legislation.”
He added that draft statutory instruments (SIs) “do not get the same scrutiny” as bills.
They “are not subject to amendment, and both the front benches of Labour and Conservatives in the Lords hold to a principle of not voting to block any SIs, so a Government can still get a controversial cancellation through via an SI”, he said.
Lord Pack said: “Requiring an SI is no real safeguard when both Labour and Conservatives are committed not to block them.
“Rather, it’s all but a blank cheque for the Government.”
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill is next due for debate in the Lords on Tuesday.