Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick has joined calls for Steve Reed’s resignation after the Housing Secretary abandoned plans to cancel local elections for 4.5 million Britons.
Speaking to GB News, the Reform UK MP hailed the U-turn as a triumph for democratic principles, attributing it entirely to Nigel Farage’s legal challenge against the postponement.
He told GB News: “I think this is a victory for democracy. The Government has been forced, kicking and screaming, to go ahead with these elections.
“And why has it happened? Well, it’s happened for one reason: Nigel Farage and Reform decided to bring this legal case. If they hadn’t done these, elections would have been cancelled.”
Mr Jenrick emphasised that official legal guidance made clear these powers required careful application and could not justify postponing votes for a second consecutive year.
He explained: “This is a Government with a pattern of behaviour about denying the voice of the people. Whether it’s jury trials or now elections, time and again, Keir Starmer and his ministers want to reduce, frustrate, prevent the public from having their say and making their voices heard.
“The Government of that day took the decision to postpone elections for one year because we were in the depths of the pandemic, and there were social distancing, lockdown, etc.
“But the legal advice that the Government received was very clear; these powers had to be exercised in the most judicious manner, and you certainly couldn’t be delaying elections for two years, as the Government was proposing to do in whole swathes of the country, big councils like Norfolk and Suffolk.”
Robert Jenrick has called for Steve Reed to resign over Labour’s U-turn on the local election delay
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GB NEWS
Backing calls from Nigel Farage for Mr Reed to resign as a result of the decision, Mr Jenrick argued: “What I’m pleased is going to happen now is 4.6 million people are going to get that say. Why? Because of Nigel Farage and Reform.
“There have been occasional cases where there have been judicial reviews of individual local authorities but never on this scale. And that’s why I do think Nigel’s right to say this is a resignation matter for the secretary of state.”
He admitted: “I don’t like banding around those terms, they’re overused in politics, but the secretary of state has made a big mistake here, and when you’re dealing with something as fundamental as democracy and the right to vote, you should be exercising the greatest care.
“And it seems like he’s taken a decision that was contrary to legal advice, or at least pushing the law to the very limit, and it’s only back down now at the 11th hour. Why? Because he knew he would lose in court, and he knew that all of the papers and the legal advice he had seen was about to go into the public domain, and he would be embarrassed by it.”
Nigel Farage also called for Steve Reed to resign over Labour’s local election U-turn
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GB NEWSUrging voters to now “have their say” at the ballot box to send a “strong message” to Labour and the Tories, Mr Jenrick told GB News: “Fortunately, Nigel Farage has won this big battle now, and these elections are going to go ahead.
“And my message to the public would be to use your votes now to send a strong message to Labour and frankly, the Conservatives who are colluding in this, that you are not happy with the state of the country, and that these elections, which they tried to cancel now, should be used to send a message to Starmer and the Conservatives.”
He declared: “We’ll be ready, don’t worry about us. We will be ready. We’ve always wanted these elections to go ahead. We’ve continued to prepare for them.
“There will be strong candidates in place, and we want to ensure that we turn all those areas into Reform councils and do precisely what Keir Starmer tried to stop.”
Mr Jenrick told GB News that Reform UK ‘will be ready’ for the May elections
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GB NEWS
He concluded: “In much of the country, all of those parties have tried to stop these elections because ultimately they didn’t want them to go ahead.
“For the Tories and for Labour the motive was, it wasn’t about a bit of money, it wasn’t about the capacity of local Government officials, it was because they knew they were going to get hammered at the ballot box, and they wanted to postpone that for at least a year.”
Also calling on Mr Reed to “resign” over the decision, Mr Farage told GB News on Monday: “It’s a legal victory. It’s a victory for our party, but above all, it’s a victory for freedom and democracy.
“They knew they were going to lose in the High Court, and that’s why I’m saying I think for the minister, Steve Reed, frankly, is this not a resignation matter?”