Watchdog hits out at potential local election delays

The Electoral Commission has raised concerns about the prospect of more delays to council elections in England, saying it risks "damaging public confidence".

Ministers have indicated they would agree to postpone local polls due next May until 2027 if councils request a delay.

The government said some were concerned about their capacity to run the polls alongside a planned overhaul of town halls.

But the commission, which oversees elections in the UK, said it did not think "capacity constraints are a legitimate reason for delaying long-planned elections".

Vijay Rangarajan, the watchdog's chief executive, said there was also "a clear conflict of interest in asking existing councils to decide how long it will be before they are answerable to voters".

Delays to elections risk "affecting the legitimacy of local decision-making," he added.

The government plans to get rid of the two-tier system of district and county councils, creating a swathe of new authorities that will be responsible for delivering all local services in their areas from 2028.

On Thursday, ministers asked all 63 councils affected by the reorganisation that are due to hold elections in May to say whether they require a delay, with a deadline of 15 January to respond.

In a statement - published on the last day before Parliament's Christmas break - Local Government Minister Alison McGovern said "multiple" councils had already asked for a postponement.

She said they had raised concerns about their capacity to run "resource-intensive elections to councils who may be shortly abolished", alongside the reorganisation of local government.

Others had questioned the cost to taxpayers of holding elections for councils that are due to be abolished, she added.

McGovern argued councils "are in the best position to judge the impact of potential postponements on their areas" and "the government will listen to them".

However, the move prompted a backlash from opposition parties, who have accused Labour of denying people the right to vote for local leaders in an attempt to keep control of councils.

Whilst there is a precedent for cancelling elections to councils that are about to be replaced, the slow progress of the reorganisation has seen Labour face accusations it is acting undemocratically.

Elections originally scheduled for May 2025 in nine areas, including Suffolk, East and West Sussex, and Essex, have already been postponed once.

If elections are delayed again in any of these areas, it will mean some councillors will have sat for seven years without facing local voters.

East Sussex County Council has already requested a further delay, saying it wants to focus its resources on delivering services, while West Sussex is reported to have done the same.

However, councils in Essex and Hampshire have confirmed to the BBC they will not be asking for May elections to be postponed.

Mr Rangarajan said: "Scheduled elections should as a rule go ahead as planned, and only be postponed in exceptional circumstances."

He said leaving decisions on potential delays until mid-January created "unprecedented" uncertainty for campaigners and administrators who needed time to prepare.

"Parties and candidates have already been preparing for some time, and will be understandably concerned," he added.

Labour has a majority in 18 of the 63 councils that have been asked about a potential delay, with the Conservatives holding a majority in nine and the Liberal Democrats in seven.

However the Conservatives are defending the largest number of seats, at 610 - more than a quarter of those currently due for re-election in May.

Reform UK, which is hoping to translate its leads in national opinion polls into big wins in May's local elections, has accused Labour and the Conservatives of working together to prevent the party making further gains.

The Liberal Democrats have also claimed the move is a "Labour and Conservative stitch up to deny people their votes".

The Conservatives have criticised the government's decision to offer further delays, claiming Labour is "scared of the voters".

However, leader Kemi Badenoch has indicated she would would not stand in the way of Tory councils requesting a postponement.

"We need to listen to what they are saying, but in my view we should just have all these elections and be done with it," she told the BBC on Thursday.