4.5m people denied vote as more polls axed
Two major Tory-controlled councils among dozens given permission by the Government to delay local elections
Labour announced plans on Thursday to deny 4.5 million people a vote, with two of Britainâs biggest councils allowed to delay elections.
Tory-controlled Suffolk and Norfolk were among 29 authorities given permission to cancel Mayâs ballot.
The Conservative-led Essex council is also said to have privately discussed the possibility of a cancellation with ministers, which would deny a further 1.1 million people a vote.
The delays mean that millions of people will have been left with no say over who controls their local services and council tax for up to seven years.
The Telegraph has launched a Campaign for Democracy, calling for ministers to be stripped of their legal powers to cancel local elections.
MPs across the political divide reacted angrily to the announcement by Steve Reed, the Communities Secretary, that elections would be postponed in 29 areas, including 15 Labour-run councils.
Ministers have justified the delays by saying they are needed to allow local authorities to merge as part of an efficiency drive, but critics have claimed that councils are cancelling ballots to avoid losing seats.
Labour is widely expected to perform poorly at this Mayâs elections, given its dire national poll ratings, and faces losing seats to Reform on the Right and the Greens to its Left.
Norfolk and Suffolk, which are home to 1.4 million voters, both claimed that they would not be able to hold elections and press on with the local government restructure, under which district councils are set to be abolished and merged into new unitary authorities.
Both areas also cancelled their elections last year and last held a ballot in 2021, as did Tory-controlled East Sussex and West Sussex.
However, ministers have admitted that the new unitary councils are not expected to be up and running until 2028 at the earliest, even âon the most ambitious timelinesâ, leaving some voters under the same council for at least seven years.
Two million voters across five Tory councils will be denied a vote this spring. Party officials said on Thursday they backed local leaders to âdo the right thing for their areasâ.
A Tory source insisted the party would not punish local leaders who had pushed for electoral delays.
They said: âThe Conservative Party is a democracy and not a dictatorship. Itâs not like Reform, where everyone has to do what Nigel [Farage] says. We trust our local leaders to do the right thing for their local areas.â
However, in the Commons, the party strongly opposed the delays, with Sir James Cleverly, the shadow communities secretary, accusing Labour of cowardice.
âThis Government has moved seamlessly from arrogance to incompetence and now cowardice,â he told MPs.
âIt was the Government who rushed through a huge programme of local government reorganisation, imposing new structures and timetables, and it is the Government who is failing to deliver them.
âRather than take responsibility for his own failure, the Secretary of State has chosen to dump the consequences of his own incompetence onto the laps of local councils.â
Mr Reed hit back, saying that the Tories had previously cancelled local elections, including during the pandemic.
âTo those who say weâve cancelled all the elections, we havenât. To those who say itâs all Labour councils, it isnât,â he said.
Officials in Mr Reedâs department, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, also held private meetings with the leaders of both Norfolk and Essex councils, according to The Times.
While Essex councilâs leader publicly denied the claims, the newspaper reportedly saw minutes of an internal meeting in which leader Kevin Bentley said his preference was âto not have electionsâ.
Mr Bentley denied having asked for a postponement and insisted that elections in the authority, which includes Kemi Badenochâs constituency, would go ahead.
There are widespread concerns that Mr Reedâs plans to have new unitary authorities up and running in 2028 are wildly optimistic and that the schedule will slip.
Ministers have refused to rule out the possibility of further delays to elections next year when pressed by MPs.
In response to a written question last month, Alison McGovern, the local government minister, said that elections in May 2027 before a âgo-liveâ date in April 2028 were âon the most ambitious timelinesâ.
One local government source said there was a âvery widespread feelingâ across councils that the Government would have to delay more elections next year.
Politicians across the divide joined forces on Thursday night to demand that ministers rule out delaying elections again.
Richard Tice, Reform UKâs deputy leader, said that Mr Reed âmust now categorically rule out any further delay next yearâ, while Nigel Farage called Sir Keir a âdictatorâ.
Paul Holmes, the shadow local government minister, said: âHaving already cancelled elections two years running, it is outrageous that they might make it a hat-trick of democracy dodging.
âThe only thing that should be postponed is Labourâs top-down, rushed restructuring â not elections.â
Sir John Whittingdale, the MP for Maldon in Essex, said that the reorganisation was âcomplete chaosâ and that he expected further delays to elections.
âI can just see in six monthsâ time theyâre going to turn around and say weâve been told the timetable for electing the new authority is unrealistic,â he said.
Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, added: âThe Government need to categorically rule out that they wonât come back asking for further delays next year.
âVoters rightly deserve the chance to decide who runs the vital local services that they rely on.â
The Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment in the House of Lords that would force any delay to Mayâs elections to be voted on by Parliament before being approved.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it was ânot trueâ to suggest elections would be delayed again in 2027.
âOnce reorganisation is agreed, residents will get the chance to vote for newly reorganised councils in May 2027, and those councils will begin operating the following year. We are on track with that timeline and weâre sticking to it,â he said.
