Oxfordshire MP welcomes local elections going ahead
Oxfordshire elections will take place in May
An Oxfordshire MP has welcomed that local elections will be held this spring, after the news that nine council areas have been postponed for one year amid the reorganisation of local government in England.
The reorganisation is part of Labour's manifesto commitment to widen devolution, as the party wants to abolish the two-tier system of county and district councils and merge them together to create larger unitary authorities.
"Suspending an election feels like an interruption"
Calum Miller, Liberal Democrat MP for Bicester and Woodstock said: “I'm really pleased that voters in Oxfordshire can have the chance to vote this May.
“The people I speak to on the doorstep say that they value the opportunity to exercise their vote and to have a say in how they're governed, and it's been nearly four years since the last round of election, so it feels right that people across the county have the chance to vote for a new set of councillors.”
However, the nine affected which will see delayed elections are East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey.
Mr Miller said: “Delaying elections by a year isn't going to materially change everything, but it's the fact that national government would effectively be suspending elections.
“I think I'm right in saying that it has only happened in the past, in the case of the pandemic or wars. So, suspending an election feels like an interruption to a process that's really important so that people can see the competition for ideas and have a choice between their different representatives.”
"Expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers' money"
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner agreed to cancel elections in May because the Government is "not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won't exist", and will subsequently will be held in May 2026 after the expected reorganisation.
Ms Rayner said: "The Government's starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there's a strong justification for postponement, and the bar is high, and rightly so.
"I am only agreeing to half of the requests that were made. After careful consideration, I have only agreed to postpone elections in places where this is central to our manifesto promise to deliver devolution.
"We're not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won't exist and where we don't know what will replace them. This would be an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers' money, and any party calling for these elections to go ahead must explain how this waste would be justifiable."