
“Exactly which English local council elections will go ahead on Thursday 1st May is still unclear at this point”, says the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) national election agent, Clive Heemskerk, responding to the latest government announcement on January 15th about the fate of May’s polls.
But, he adds, anyone considering standing against the establishment parties in any of the 31 councils originally scheduled for elections this year, who wants to use one of the TUSC descriptions on their ballot paper, “shouldn’t hold back from sending in their TUSC candidate application form” as soon as possible.
An attack on democracy
Labour’s English Devolution White Paper, published in mid-December, proposed a wholesale re-organisation of local government, signalling its intent to merge many districts councils into larger, less accountable, single bodies – known as unitary authorities – and increase the number of directly-elected mayors. It also gave the option to county councils facing elections in May this year to apply to postpone those contests if they could show they could carry out re-organisation plans by 2026.
“Larger, more remote councils are favoured by both the Blairite New Labour party and the Tories”, says Clive, “because it fits with their aim to weaken local democratic accountability”.
“People living in towns and cities like, for example, Exeter, Basildon, Worcester, Crawley or Norwich – which currently hold district council elections every year, for one-third of the seats each time, and a county election in the fourth year – will only have a vote for who controls their local public services once every four years under the White Paper plans”.
“Both parties also admire the American model, of ‘big personality’ mayors only lightly supervised by elected ‘boards’ and handing out contracts for public services to private providers”.
“With such arrangements, it’s far easier to take unpopular decisions to cut or privatise services – or to favour special business interests – than to win support for austerity pro-business policies amongst a wider group of regularly-elected councillors, who have to justify themselves to local people”.
What happens now?
Not surprisingly at least 15 Tory-controlled county councils (and the Liberal Democrat-led Oxfordshire one) asked to cancel elections by the 10th January deadline; despite the Tory shadow cabinet member Robert Jenrick saying before Christmas that “elections should only be postponed in truly exceptional circumstances… Maybe Labour don’t want to face the electorate?”.
Now it is for the Starmer government to decide whether to table, for each particular council, the necessary ‘order in parliament’ – known as statutory instruments – to allow a scheduled election not to go ahead, which must be done by mid-February at the latest. And for MPs to decide to challenge them or not, which even an individual backbencher can do.
“There will definitely be elections in May”, says Clive, “for the following county councils and unitary authorities: Cambridgeshire; Hertfordshire; North Northamptonshire; Nottinghamshire; West Northamptonshire; Durham; Northumberland; Lancashire; Buckinghamshire; Cornwall; Wiltshire; Shropshire; Staffordshire; and Doncaster borough council”.
“But for the others – Essex; Norfolk; Suffolk; Derbyshire; Leicestershire; Lincolnshire; East Sussex; Hampshire; Kent; Oxfordshire; Surrey; West Sussex; Devon; Gloucestershire; Warwickshire; and Worcestershire – until the statutory instruments go through parliament potential candidates should assume that the election in a particular council is still on”.
“And get in their application form to use one of the TUSC descriptions on the ballot paper as soon as possible”. ■
TUSC was set-up to enable working class fighters, trade unionists, community campaigners, anti-war or climate activists, and socialists from different parties or none, to stand in elections using a ballot paper description that gives a clearer indicator of their politics than just the bare label of ‘Independent’ – the only description that candidates are legally allowed to use unless they are supported by a political party registered with the Electoral Commission.
The only qualification for candidates who wish to use the TUSC name, or any other of the eight descriptions it has registered with the Electoral Commission, is that they have to endorse the TUSC core policies platform for the relevant election. These are a list of minimum commitments that voters could expect from someone elected while using the TUSC banner – while leaving room for every candidate, whether from the various parts of our coalition or an independent individual socialist, to keep control of their own campaigns.
The platform for the May 2025 local elections – the ‘six guarantees’ – can be viewed at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Local-elections-policy-guarantees-2025.pdf.
Using one of the descriptions on the ballot paper
By law candidates who wish to appear on the ballot paper using a registered description have to submit to the council election staff, along with their nomination forms, a Certificate of Authorisation to use a Description, signed by the Nominating Officer of the party that holds the description with the Electoral Commission.
An application form for candidates to use a TUSC-registered description – including for the first time the new description, Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate – is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/2025-application-form-cllr/ (if you are having difficulty opening this link, try copying it into your browser). Submitting the form will be taken as indicating your agreement with the ‘six guarantees’.
For more details check out the TUSC guide to electoral law for prospective candidates and election agents, available as a downloadable PDF at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2025-Guide-for-Candidates-Agents.pdf