Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: How to make me cross

How to make me cross

Not that much makes me want to bang my head on the desk, but last week the government announced that they were postponing the inaugural mayoral elections for Sussex until 2028, and that made me properly cross.

There are many more serious things wrong with the country, and across the globe, and I write this not to minimise their gravity or to say that we should not feel cross, furious even about those injustices. The reason that the postponement of these elections is so maddening is because it is a problem purely of Labour’s own creation.

For an incoming government whose overarching mission was ‘change’, there was - and is - plenty in local government that needed to be changed. Whether it is how you fund local government and the failings of Council Tax, to services that are groaning under the weight of soaring demand (social care, special educational needs and temporary accommodation for starters) there were plenty of things that Labour chose not to get stuck into.

Instead the government decided to put swathes of England on an aggressive timescale to devolve powers from Westminster, create mayors and combined strategic authorities, whilst merging county and district councils. I have worked in large businesses going through mergers and reorganisations, and I know that productivity tends to nose dive at these times. Reorganisations normally promise ‘efficiencies’ but the price of this is hundreds of hours of management time working out how to reorganise, and a workforce who understandably are worried about where they are going to end up once all is done and dusted. 

As I wrote at the start of the year, it felt like a foxtrot (slow, slow, quick, quick, slow) with the ‘easy’ things going at breakneck speed, and the ‘difficult’ things consigned to the back burner. It turns out that one of the easy things was not so easy, and as a result a considerable amount of public sector time, effort and money has been spent on this whilst the really thorny issues loom ever larger.

Watch what I said to a government minister about their choices here.

A democratic deficit

What I have written above takes the government at its word. Namely that the elections are being delayed so that local government reorganisation is completed before a mayor is elected. However, critics of the government, including the Lib Dems, are sceptical that this is the only reason for the delay. It is not unreasonable to look at how Labour is performing in the polls and conclude that maybe there was not much prospect of any Labour mayors being elected in May 2026. This video from The Telegraph’s Poppy Coburn sets out the case about why Reform UK and Jacob Rees-Mogg are almost as cross as me

Bear in mind that this comes on the heels of this year’s elections to West Sussex County Council also being cancelled. In an era where trust in politics and politicians is terribly low, the idea that elections can be readily cancelled or postponed at the behest of those in power only adds to a sense of mistrust. I do not think that this is something any government should be messing around with. 

What next?

We think that we are likely to have the delayed elections for West Sussex County Council in May 2026. But this is not confirmed, and it is less than five months away. I hope that one way or the other, we will get confirmation before Christmas, and I will of course keep you posted.  

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

PS: If you’ve enjoyed this week’s Monday Mail, please spread the word and tell your friends by forwarding it to them. Anyone can sign up here