Watch the moment Zia Yusuf launches a blistering attack on Labour councillor Stuart Fawcett during a heated debate over the Government’s decision to delay local elections in areas undergoing council reorganisation.
Councillor Fawcett argued the postponement was needed to give councils time to prepare for new single-tier authorities and consult with the public.
But Mr Yusuf accused him of dodging the real issue and dismissed the argument as out of touch with voters.
He pointed to polling suggesting Reform UK could win more than 75 per cent of seats in the affected areas, questioning why the elections were being delayed if the public wanted their vote.
Speaking on The People’s Channel, Mr Fawcett said: “I just want to make something very clear. I’m a local councillor, for those watching, and my council is going to be abolished. It’s not due for re-election until 2027.
“However, lots of councils have two tiers. So if someone comes and knocks on your door and says, ‘Hello,’ you might say, ‘Which one?’ because you’ve just had one of those. There’s a lot of confusion and overlap in services.
“So the Government is doing local government reorganisation in order to bring local government into one layer.
“Local councils like mine have a lot of work to schedule and organise: how that’s going to look, consulting with the public, and what this new single tier of Government is going to be.
Labour councillor Stuart Fawcett defended the delayed elections
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“The Government has said, considering you’re doing all this work and your layer of Government is about to be abolished, do you wish to not have an election for a short period of time?
“It’s about a year, perhaps two years, until the council is abolished, in order to facilitate the new elections for the new local authorities. Only for some of those councillors, potentially.”
Mr Yusuf fumed: “Is it a coincidence that, according to an MRP poll from the Telegraph, Reform is going to win north of 75 per cent of the seats in the areas that have been affected? There’s a long coincidence, a point about delays. I mean, why do people need to have them delayed for two years?
Councillor Stuart Fawcett: “Yeah, that’s the thing I would like to answer. Is it a coincidence? There’s a long time now between that particular event and the local Government elections. And polls aren’t always the most accurate in terms of people’s journeys to the polling station.”
Zia Yusuf tore into the Labour Councillor
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The Reform Head of Policy said: “Then let the votes go ahead.”
The Councillor responded: “Hold on. You asked me a question, so I’m going to finish answering it.”
Mr Yusuf: “Well get on with it then.”
Mr Fawcett: “What the Government has done is delegate the choice to those local councils for their communities. Now, if that was a question to my council, I would consult with my community and ask them, and vote accordingly on whether to delay or not.
“And your court case is appalling.”
Mr Yusuf said: “This is your chance to return the right to vote to the people in those areas.
“You’re going to deny them the choice to actually go out there and consult and ask their local electorate.
“All councils are doing a referendum on whether elections should go ahead.
“As with anything, you can always lobby your councillor, speak to your councillor, consult with tens of thousands of people, and they are doing that.
“But listen, if you genuinely think that the vast majority of people are not just wanting elections to go ahead in those areas. but are not absolutely apoplectic about it.
“I’m afraid, like most of Labour, I do not deny you’re living in cloud cuckoo land.”
At the end of December, the Government announced that the 63 councils involved in local government reorganisation could write to Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government setting out capacity constraints to justify delaying their May elections, with a deadline of 15 January.
Reform UK argues that this delayed process discourages candidates from standing and undermines democratic election campaigns.