Local elections are back on across Sussex after a U-turn by the Labour government days before a case brought by Reform UK was due to be heard in the High Court.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed, has written to the court and council leaders, reversing his existing position.
It means that elections to East Sussex County Council and West Sussex County Council – which were due to be held last year but postponed – will no go ahead on Thursday 7 May.
Last year, local elections were scrapped as the government pushed ahead with plans for devolution – including an elected mayor for Sussex – and a shake up to reduce the number of councils.
This year, the government left it up to councils themselves, with the two Conservative-run county councils in Sussex both opting for another postponement.
Now, the county councils will have to prepare for polling in May, along with Adur District Council, Crawley Borough Council, Hastings Borough Council and Worthing Borough Council.
And the political parties will have work to a much tighter timescale than usual to find candidates.
Today (Monday 16 February), Mr Reed wrote to the High Court, saying: “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.
“The secretary of 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.”
Mr Reed wrote to councils, saying: “The Government can confirm that all local elections in May 2026 will now go ahead.
“I recognise that many of the local councils undergoing reorganisation voiced genuine concerns about the pressure they are under as we seek to deliver the most ambitious reforms of local government in a generation.
“I am therefore announcing today that we will provide up to £63 million in additional capacity funding to the 21 local areas undergoing reorganisation across the whole programme, building on the £7.6 million provided for developing proposals last year. I will shortly set out further detail about how that funding will be allocated.
“My officials will be in touch with those affected councils to understand if any further practical support will be required.”
The Local Government Information Unit LGIU said: “The government has lost a fight it should never have picked.
“There was no good reason to postpone these elections and the government should have known where the crunch points in local government reorganisation were going to come. Many people pointed them out.
“Having attempted to pass the political risk of postponing elections on to councils by insisting that it should be a local choice and now backing down under the threat of legal actions government has shown a capricious disregard for local democracy
“The government should remember that running an election is difficult. As years of our research have shown, the fact that elections are safe and reliable despite severe time and resource constraints is only because of the extraordinary efforts put in by electoral administrators.
“This most recent announcement means that 30 councils will now have to run elections within an even more constrained timetable.
“This risks the successful delivery of elections in all of these places, not to mention the additional strain it will needlessly add to the workloads of dedicated staff.
“On the political side, many parties will now be scrabbling around to find candidates they didn’t think they needed.
“It’s reckless of the government to play fast and loose with the foundations of democracy.
“Those councils undergoing local government reorganisation are trying to implement the biggest change in local governance for a generation. This is a project of massive complexity being delivered under intense pressure in challenging timescales.
“They deserve to have confidence that the government will deliver on its side of the process and not just keep changing its mind. Today’s announcement will further dent councils’ confidence in the government’s consistency of purpose.”
The Reform leader Nigel Farage is a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England, the constituency that covered the whole of Sussex including Brighton and Hove.
Today, he tweeted: “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.”
Mr Farage was asked by BBC London if Mr Reed should resign. The Reform leader said: “If a government minister does something illegal, they really ought to resign.”
The Reform leader had earlier said that the decision to delay the election was “clearly unlawful”.
The government agreed to pay Reform’s legal costs for the case and the amount was likely to be at least £100,000, according to Mr Farage’s party.
It’s not just Keir Starmer’s judgement that is dodgy, it’s his whole Cabinet. It’s all just embarrassing now – clinging on to power by delaying elections was never a good look, reeks of desperation.