It appears that the government took legal advice relating to the challenge and decided not to actually contest the matter in court. Details of that legal advice are not available and so we do not know the exact basis for the government's decision.
Such decisions are usually taken if legal advice indicates that government powers are inadequate to support a planned course of action. It seems likely that the length of some of the postponements was a key factor.
The original postponement were the subject of an earlier post on this blog (5 December 2025) where it was noted that the government purported to act under powers granted by the Local Government Act 2000 section 87.
See the Government announcement (with link to letter from the Minister to the Councils affected). This simply stated 'following legal advice' and gave no details.
Local Government Reorganisation - Policy and Programme Updates
The Electoral Reform Society has welcomed the reversal and argues that there is now a question over the process by which elections are postponed in the future. 'There needs to be clarity around the exceptional circumstances where elections may be postponed, the process for deciding when they are, and for how long.'
BBC News 16 February 2026 - Government abandons plan to postpone elections
BBC News - A simple guide to the May elections in England, Scotland and Wales
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