Sir Keir Starmer defended his U-turn on council elections today – blaming local authorities for wanting to postpone votes.

Thirty English council polls had been postponed, to help town halls through a major reorganisation of local government.

But the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on Monday reinstated the votes, after receiving advice from lawyers following a legal challenge by Reform.

Put to him during a visit to South Wales that the U-turn had left local councils scrambling to organise polls at short notice, the Prime Minister said: ‘Well, I think it’s important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally-led decision in the sense that each authority could decide.

‘And, yes, Labour authorities came forward to say, ”please delay”.

‘But so did Tory authorities, so did Lib Dem authorities.

‘In relation to the position, we took further legal advice, and as you would expect as a government, having got further legal advice, we followed that legal advice.’

During a visit to South Wales the Prime Minister said: ‘Well, I think it’s important to remind ourselves that the decision to cancel was a locally-led decision in the sense that each authority could decide’

He spoke alongside First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan during a visit to a railway depot in South Wales