Covid-19: Election campaigning could 'open up' as restrictions ease

Campaigning for 6 May's English local elections could begin once Covid-19 restrictions start to be eased, Tory chair Amanda Milling has suggested.

In a letter to councillors and MPs, she said she expected activity to "open up... closer to the election period" - expected to begin in early April.

No 10 has said it wants the polls for more than 120 councils and key mayoral contests to go ahead as planned.

But one local Tory official told the BBC a short delay "would make sense".

Local authority elections are currently scheduled by law to take place across England on 6 May.

There were reports last month that ministers had sounded out local leaders in Greater Manchester about potentially delaying the polls until the summer or the autumn due to the pandemic.

The government has subsequently said the situation is being kept "under review" but there would be a "high bar" for the democratic process to be put on hold again, after last year's elections were put back a year.

On 6 May, seats on more than 120 councils are set to be contested while mayoral contests in London, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and other areas held over from 2020 are also due to go ahead.

As it stands, the deadline for notice to be published for the elections to go ahead is 29 March, although it is a week earlier for elections to the Greater London Authority.

In a signal the government wants to press ahead, Ms Milling has written to all Tory councillors, MPs, mayors and candidates to remind them "the biggest ever set of peacetime elections are just over three months away".

In her letter, she restated the government's position that no doorstep canvassing nor leafleting should take place during the England-wide lockdown and that her party should limit itself to online activities.

"I know colleagues are, like me, frustrated not to be able to get out there door-knocking, speaking to voters and leafleting," she wrote.

But she added: "This advice is only for the current period of national lockdown. The party anticipates that permitted activity will open up as we get closer to the election period, reflecting the broader expected changes to Covid-19 restrictions as vaccines are rolled out to the most vulnerable groups."

Guidance on any changes to the electoral process would be issued in due course, she said, adding that she was in discussions with other political parties about how the nominating process for the thousands of candidates, which is normally done in person, might be adapted to the current circumstances.

But the chair of a local Conservative association, who asked for their name not to be published, said it was difficult to see how the polls could take place safely.

"I can appreciate the government's reluctance to make a decision now but both main parties need to consider whether vaccination rollout is more important than insisting that elections go ahead whilst we are still in the middle of a pandemic," they told the BBC.

"A short delay would make a lot of sense, and the sooner that the Conservatives and Labour face up to that reality, the better."

Boris Johnson has said the current lockdown will continue until at least 8 March, the earliest date at which pupils could return to school in England if infection and hospitalisation levels fall and vaccination targets are met.

The PM has promised to publish a plan in the last week of February for how other restrictions could be lifted over time in a "gradual and phased" way if the scientific data allows.

Elections for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd are also due to take place on 6 May.