Allister Heath has warned Britain is “cancelling democracy” after local elections were delayed, accusing Labour of “running scared” of voters.

He said there is “no excuse whatsoever” for postponing elections, arguing that democracy cannot be switched off for political convenience.

The Government has said that it plans to postpone local elections for 29 councils in England that were due to take place in May.

Speaking on GB News, the business journalist said: “I think there are two points here. The first is it’s a very good story, and it’s an explosive claim really from her.

“It’s not conclusive proof, of course, but nonetheless I think it’s quite obvious.

“It’s quite obvious that these councillors are not standing for re-election, that elections will be cancelled because Labour in particular, but also to a lesser degree the Tories, are worried about losing council seats — and that’s an absolute outrage.

“I’m an old-fashioned person. I think the Government should take decisions. This is very, very important.

“You can’t just have the Prime Minister saying it’s got nothing to do with us, that these are just councils randomly deciding not to run elections. It’s a travesty, this nonsense.

“I’m an old-fashioned person in a second sense. If you’re the leader of a political party, you should be able to impose on members of your political party a certain set of principles.

“In this case, there is an election, so you need to stand for election. Democracy is good. You can’t just cancel democracy with unity.

“So I have no time at all for either the Prime Minister or anybody else — including the Leader of the Opposition — saying it’s got nothing to do with them, that these are just councils spontaneously deciding to cancel what really counts about Britain, which is the fact that we are a democracy.

“Labour are running scared. Of course they’re running scared. Yes, that’s absolutely what’s happening.

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“And it’s an outrage. It doesn’t matter whether you run scared or not — democracy is democracy. You can’t just go around cancelling elections.

“The only possible reason to cancel an election would be a massive war or a massive pandemic which means people can’t go to the polls. We didn’t have elections for ten years during the Second World War.

“But the point is, we actually had the general election in 1945 when the Second World War was still ongoing, when the Japanese front was still ongoing.

“So this is an outrage. It shouldn’t happen. These are all nonsensical excuses. There’s no excuse whatsoever. Labour’s running scared. It’s an outrage.”

Ministers asked 63 councils in England last month if they wanted to delay their elections until 2027 so they could bed in a local government shake-up.

Of those councils, 29 have decided to take up the offer and push back elections.

The Government has said the remaining 34 councils also going through reorganisation will still hold local elections in May, meaning the majority will go ahead as planned.

According to The Times, Essex and Norfolk council leaders have made private requests to postpone their elections, which would take the number of affected voters to around 5.6 million.

Councillors in areas where elections are postponed will have their terms extended, the Local Government Secretary has said.

Steve Reed told MPs in the Commons: “In areas where elections are postponed, existing councillors will have their terms extended for a short period.

“Once the new unitary councils are agreed, we will hold elections to them in 2027.”