Exclusive: English local elections set to go ahead without delay on May 6, Boris Johnson decides

Boris Johnson has resolved that English town hall elections scheduled for May 6 should go ahead as planned, in the latest signal No 10 is confident coronavirus restrictions can be eased across the country by early April.

The Prime Minister decided in recent days that the “Super Thursday” polls to elect a range of councillors, mayors, London Assembly members, and police and crime commissioners in England should not be delayed, The Telegraph has learned.

It followed internal discussions between ministers and officials about whether to postpone the ballots until June, amid fears that Covid-19 restrictions could hamper candidates in the run-up to the scheduled date.

The Government is understood to have calculated that lockdown measures will have eased sufficiently by Easter to allow candidates enough time to campaign before ballots are cast in May, however.

“By Good Friday [on April 2] restrictions should have started to ease, so that allows four weeks of campaign. We just have to accept it’s not perfect, but we’re in a pandemic,” a Conservative source said.

“Privately what No 10 has worked out is that if they keep talking about how amazing the vaccine rollout is, it doesn’t make sense why they can’t do the elections.”

A second Tory insider said: “If it’s safe to do so, it should go ahead. It’s already been delayed by a year. It’s people democratic right to go to the polls.”

An ongoing Cabinet Office assessment into the coronavirus-related risks of the local elections is the only mechanism that could upend the central Government assumption that the polls will take place on May 6, it is understood.

It would only be if safety problems were identified by the assessment that a delay would now be considered.

The Electoral Commission has drawn up a raft of measures to ensure that polling stations are Covid-compliant, including the use of hand sanitiser and floor markings, as well as making face masks mandatory.

Research published by the commission on Wednesday morning showed that 71 per cent of people in England would feel safe voting in person when appropriate hygiene measures and social distancing are in place, while only 21 per cent said they would feel unsafe.

The survey suggested there may be an increase in postal votes in the town hall elections. Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of people who generally vote in person indicated they would apply for a postal ballot if the polls were held in December, when the poll was conducted. Among all electors, 42 per cent said they would prefer to vote by post at that time.

It remains to be seen if appetite for postal votes dims as the vaccine rollout continues over the coming months and if infection and hospitalisation rates fall as predicted. The deadline to register for a postal vote in England is 5pm on Tuesday April 20, while the deadline to register to vote by proxy is a week later.

The current date for the elections is laid down in legislation, meaning a change of law would be needed to alter it. Mr Johnson had warned the public that it was being “kept under review”.

That option was last week echoed by Chloe Smith, a Cabinet Office minister, but she stressed there was a “high bar” for any delay, adding: "Any change would require very careful consideration, including by this House, and need to be based on robust evidence.

Proposals to postpone all polls scheduled for May 6 - including the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections - until June were discussed among officials across the UK last week with the prospect of a joint decision being reached.

However Nicola Sturgeon had already signalled her determination to push on with the Holyrood elections on May 6, despite coming under pressure to delay them. “I see no reason at this stage why the election wouldn’t go ahead,” she said earlier this month.

“I think everybody would agree it’s really important that our democratic processes continue and that elections happen. There have been elections in many other countries over the course of the pandemic,” she added.

Labour has vociferously opposed delaying the polls, warning the Government that it would be accused of chasing a “vaccine bump” if the date were pushed back.

Andrew Gwynne, the shadow local government secretary, last week said that if the Conservatives’ postponed the elections and used coronavirus as a justification, it would amount to them fixing the date to benefit their electoral chances.

A Conservative Party spokeswoman said: “We are planning for the elections in May, subject to the Government ensuring the elections can be delivered in a Covid-secure way.”