GB News host Stephen Dixon has brutally shut down a Labour MP for defending the Government’s decision to delay four mayoral elections.

In a fiery exchange on the People’s Channel, Stephen told Children’s Minister Josh MacAlister that the move is “not democratic” and Labour has had “almost two years” to sort the local authorities out.

Defending the decision, Mr MacAlister told GB News: “We’ve got new mayors being set up across the country.

“Some of those mayors will be in areas where the local authority, the council that sits below the mayor’s role, hasn’t yet been reorganised because they’re still in this old fashioned system of having a District Council and a County Council.

“Putting a reform of mayors on top of that would be chaos. Now what we see in Lancashire County Council and in Kent with reform running both of those councils is they are chaotic.

“What we want to do is get devolution right, so in areas of the country where they’ve still got districts and counties, they first of all need to put themselves into a unitary council and then there’ll be a mayoral election. That’s the only reason this is happening.”

Hitting back at the Labour MP, Stephen stated: “But by the time it gets round to May next year, you will have been in power for basically two years.

“You’ve had two years to work on this to get all these reforms through and for these councils to all get changed.

“You’re saying it’s going to take another two years to sort it all out? Some of these people could have been in power for six years, longer than a parliamentary term, by the time that local people get to have their say. That’s not democratic?!”

Dismissing Stephen’s remarks, Mr MacAlister responded: “I really don’t agree or accept the premise of that question.

“The last Government had 14 years to sort devolution out and they introduced a tiny number of new mayors. They’ve been really successful, but a tiny number.

“We are rolling out a revolution in devolution across this Parliament, but it will take this Parliament to get those changes rolled out, as we’re doing it in dozens of parts of the country.”

Grilling the Labour Minister further, GB News host Penny Smith asked: “If you knew that it was going to be this complicated, why on earth say that you were going to do it at a particular time?

“Why not right at the beginning, say it won’t be happening until we sort everything out, and that’s possibly going to be 2028?”

He hit back: “Because part of the deal here is that local areas need to get themselves ready and step up with their own responsibilities.

“That means councils taking their time to figure out how they get themselves from being districts and counties into unitary authorities.

“Your viewers would would be enraged with me and the Government if we rush this through and caused major disruption to bin collection, pothole filling, children and adult social care. We need to get this right. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.”

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Pressing Mr MacAlister further, Stephen argued: “The problem is the people who are going to be absolutely enraged by this are people living in areas where they may or may not be happy with their local authority, but they are unable to have their say. Their democratic right is being removed.”

Disagreeing with Stephen, he said: “No, that’s not right. Council elections will still happen, what we’re postponing are mayoral elections.

“We’re reorganising local Government and strategic authorities as a country because everything’s too centralised.

“That needs to be done with care and it needs to be done methodically. That’s all we’re talking about here.”

Assuring that there will “still be polls in May next year”, the Labour Minister added: “People are still going to be going to the polls in May next year.

“They’re going to be going to the polls in May the next year, and we have local elections in this country all the time. That is not changing.”

He continued: “We’ve got areas of the country where they’re setting up a new mayor and have got unitary local authorities already in place.

“They’ll be going to the polls in 2027, and then these other combined authority areas have still got county councils and district councils. They’ve reorganised themselves. That’s the reason they’re being postponed.

“But we have got elections that are going to be taking place in May.”