Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: 73 days to stop Reform
Elections are go!
Half term took an unexpected turn last Monday, when in its latest u turn, the government announced that the 30 local elections that it had been seeking to cancel would, following legal advice, go ahead after all. The quiet bit that the government was not saying out loud was that Reform UK’s legal challenge trying to stop the elections being cancelled would have been successful had it got to court.
People sometimes assume that the Liberal Democrats and Reform disagree about everything. This is not true. We disagree profoundly about many, many things, but on this, on digital ID cards (another U turn), and on the Family Farm Tax (yes, another U turn) we agree.
For me, the government giving councils the choice about whether they want elections is a slippery slope. Is it any wonder that the Conservatives who run West Sussex County Council wanted elections delayed for the second year in a row when faced with a wildly unfavourable electoral landscape?
Ever since the cancellation of the elections was first mooted, I have been trying to get the elections to proceed. I presented a petition in the House of Commons, demonstrated outside County Hall in Chichester, and I have been on the TV making the case. At a time when trust in politicians is so low, setting a narrative that politicians get to choose whether elections happen pours fuel on that distrust.
It is right that we get to vote on Thursday 7th May.
Straight out of the traps
That’s said Labour’s total incompetence over these elections does mean that we now have just 73 days until polling day. So it was brilliant to welcome Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey to Haywards Heath on Tuesday to kick off our campaign. A massive thank you to everyone who joined me and Jess Brown Fuller MP in welcoming Ed to Sussex.
What’s at stake
It is a long time since elections to West Sussex County Council were last contested.
In the Spring of 2021, we were coming out of the second lockdown, and I remember having to canvas with a facemask on. I also remember really enjoying those conversations, people were pleased to chat on the doorstep, possibly because they had just got through a long winter without seeing too many folk. Nationally, Boris Johnson was PM and riding high in the polls, people even thought that he might be in Number 10 for the rest of the decade. Here in Mid Sussex, the Liberal Democrats went from one to three seats on the county council, but the Conservatives benefitted from the popularity of Johnson and won a handsome majority in West Sussex.
Roll on to 2026, and the political environment is totally different. The Conservatives have lost their grip on the Sussex electorate that they enjoyed for so long. Labour have collapsed in national polling and Starmer’s personal popularity is low by the standards of previous prime ministers. The genesis of Reform saw them storm through in the 2025 local elections, taking control of a number of councils in landslide results, including to Kent County Council. Even within Reform there is turbulence though, and a new party set up by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe saw seven ex Reform councillors switch to Restore Britain last week.
Everything is up for grabs, and I firmly believe that where the Liberal Democrats work, we can win.
We can beat the Conservatives and we must stop Reform. But we can only do this with your help.
If you can you offer to:
- Put up a poster
- Stuff envelopes
- Make phone calls
- Deliver leaflets
- Or knock on doors
When the results come in for West Sussex, I want to know that we did everything we can to stop Reform establishing themselves in our county.
Getting in touch
My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.
Best wishes,
Alison
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