Council leaders representing 18 authorities in England want to postpone elections this year. (Image: Getty)
Eighteen council leaders have asked the Government to postpone elections this year, which critics have claimed is a denial of democracy.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wants to abolish two-tier council areas to devolve more power from Westminster.
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With 21 county councils and 10 unitary authorities, due to hold elections in May, some have sought to delay them to allow time to develop proposals on reorganisation.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said on Wednesday (January 15) it received requests from 16 counties and two unitary authorities that involved "postponing their election from 2025 to 2026".
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They are Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Thurrock, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
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Clacton MP Nigel Farage, whose constituency is in Essex, has previously criticised any attempts to push back local elections as a "disgrace" and "denial of democracy".
He told the Express: "It's an act of pure cowardice. It's a denial of democracy. The whole thing's a disgrace. These are Conservative councils latching onto Labour's radical plans for local government, and they know they're really, really going to get a tough time from Reform."
The leader of Reform UK has accused the Conservatives of cowardice, as the party runs the majority of councils asking for postponed elections in May.
In its first voting intention survey since the 2024 general election, published on Monday, YouGov showed a close contest for the top spot between Labour (26%) and Reform UK (25%), with the Conservatives in third place (22%).
Local government minister Jim McMahon told the Commons: "Where local elections are postponed, we'll work with local areas to move elections to a new, shadow unitary council as soon as possible. This is a very high bar, and rightly so."
He added: "For the avoidance of doubt, this is a list of requests, it's not the final list that will be approved. We will consider carefully these requests and only postpone elections where there is a clear commitment to delivering both reorganisation and devolution to the ambitious timetable set out."
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Nigel Farage has said the move marks a 'denial of democracy'. (Image: Getty)
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Shadow Communities Minister David Simmonds said it was "not surprising" many councils requested a delay given the costs of arranging elections. He said: "There remains significant uncertainty about where and if those elections will be delayed.
"And with deadlines looming for key points in the organisation in those elections, that uncertainty risks some wasted costs for council taxpayers."
Liberal Democrat local government spokeswoman Vikki Slade said there was "no doubt" the local government needed "significant reform". However, she voiced concerns the Government's plans would result in a "top-down diktat from Whitehall".
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She said MPs and district councillors from some areas, including Devon, Surrey and the Midlands, have told her that submissions appear to have been made without their district councils being "involved or consulted".
Ms Slade, who remains a councillor in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council area after previously leading the authority, said all elections due in May 2025 should "go ahead" as the reorganisation plans "will take more than a year".
Her Liberal Democrat colleague Mike Martin, the MP for Tunbridge Wells, claimed "turkeys don't vote for Christmas", about a possible election dent in the Tories' majority - 59 out of 81 county council seats - across Kent.