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Order. Order.

Hello, I'm Mandy Baker, and this is today in Parliament for Thursday the 22nd of January,

where nearly half the local council elections in England are to be shelved.

I have decided to bring forward legislation to postpone 29 elections.

The Conservatives are suspicious.

What was it about the Labour Party's collapse in the opinion polls

that first attracted him to the cancellation of local elections?

Also tonight, after a tricky week in global diplomacy, one party has a

suggestion. Surely it's time for the minister to get behind Liberal Democrat calls for a bespoke

customs union with EU. Almost half the local elections in England won't go ahead in May. The local

government secretary, Steve Reid, said he'd approve the

postponement of 29 council polls to accommodate a major shake-up of the way local government is

organised. At the moment, many areas are under two tiers of local authority, district and county

councils. Ministers want to get rid of waste by removing a tier and creating what are called

unitary authorities instead. My priority is cutting out this waste so we can invest more in the

frontline services that residents care about. And that means moving as quickly as possible to the

new streamlined single tier councils that can make that happen.

So no point in having elections for the old authorities when they won't exist soon.

What's more holding those elections may well slow down progress.

Steve Reid said he wasn't the first Secretary of State to authorise delays.

The Tories had done it.

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