Angela Rayner defends pause to local council overhaul in England

Angela Rayner has defended her decision to pause plans to redraw local council boundaries, saying she wanted to ensure they would survive legal challenge.

It comes after earlier this week she abandoned proposals in four other areas, in the face of legal threats from Reform and Conservative-led authorities.

Councils in affected areas have been drawing up proposals and consulting with residents since the reorganisation was announced in late 2024, in a process that is already thought to have cost millions of pounds.

But she added she wanted to have "all the information" about the proposals before going ahead with them, after her reappointment to her cabinet role under Andy Burnham, ten months after her resignation last year.

"If I'm making a decision that is highly likely to be in legal challenge, I want to make sure I've dotted my i's and crossed my t's," she added.

In her announcement on Monday, Rayner said she was withdrawing plans to reorganise councils in Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

She also said she wanted to review plans for 16 other areas, including 14 announced by Reed days before Burnham replaced Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister and reappointed her to her old role.

The government has argued that the plans, which will abolish remaining two-tier areas in England where county and district councils share responsibility for services, would make local government more effective and cost efficient.

Others have also complained that the reorganisation could stymie or delay parallel efforts to merge councils into regional authorities led by mayors, which Burnham has cited as a key part of his economic plans.

Elsewhere in her interview, Rayner said Labour under Sir Keir should have been quicker to recognise a Palestinian state, having promised to do so as a "contribution to a renewed peace process" at the last election.

"It's always been Labour policy to recognise a Palestinian state, and it felt like we got there too late. It was something that should have been really clear," she said.

Settlements are illegal under international law, and there has been a rise in violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank by settlers in recent months.