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 if possible.

The Tories and Labour have stopped in-person campaigning during the lockdown.

The Lib Dems have continued to post leaflets through doors, saying there is an exemption in the current "stay at home" rules for voluntary organisations and that their representatives are complying with Covid protocols.

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

Seats on more than 120 councils are set to be contested, the vast majority of which were due to take place last year but which were postponed by 12 months.

Mayoral contests in London, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, Liverpool City region 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.

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.

And in another signal that the government is keen to press ahead on 6 May, Ms Milling has written to all Conservative 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.

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.