Ministers are to postpone elections for new mayors in four parts of England, prompting accusations from opposition parties that Downing Street is “cancelling democracy”.
Newly created mayoralties in Greater Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, Hampshire and the Solent, and Sussex and Brighton will be first contested in 2028 under the plans, ministers confirmed on Thursday.
The government argued that the areas needed more time to complete their local government reorganisation, but faced criticism from opposition parties and the Labour former local government minister.
Jim McMahon, who was removed as a minister in September, said his party needed “to be better than this” and had “a moral and a legal obligation to honour its side of the bargain”.
Criticising the postponement in the Commons, he said: “All involved had a reasonable expectation that these elections would go ahead, and the government knows that trust is hard won but is easily squandered.”
The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK all called the move, first reported by the Sun, an affront to democracy.
Defending it in the Commons, Miatta Fahnbulleh, the local government minister, said the delay would allow the strategic combined authorities to be properly set up before mayors were in post.
“The government is minded to hold these inaugural mayoral elections for Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Greater Essex in May 2028, so these areas have the opportunity to conclude their local government reorganisation and build strong, effective unitaries, which is what we want to see, and to establish their strategic authority before the mayor takes post,” she told MPs.
The government announced £200m in funding for six regions across England, of which four are having their elections postponed.
Greater Essex will receive £41.5m, Hampshire and the Solent £44.6m, Norfolk and Suffolk £37.4m, and Sussex and Brighton, £38m.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, called the decision “a scandal” and said the government’s reasoning “doesn’t wash”.
“They’ve had plenty of time to do this,” she told broadcasters during a visit to a west London school. “What we’re seeing is a Labour government that wasn’t actually ready for government, and they’ve come in and they’re making up their plans as they go along.”
Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, said: “Generally it’s dictators that cancel elections. Some 7.5 million people are now going to be denied the opportunity of voting in mayoral elections.
“Funny isn’t it: we’ve just announced our mayoral candidates for all of these areas and all of a sudden the government, terrified of losing to Reform, are cancelling them,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“To delay it two years: that is a deliberate dictatorial cancelling of democracy in the United Kingdom and we shouldn’t tolerate it.”
The Reform leader, Nigel Farage, said he held the government increasingly in “absolute and total contempt”, and was considering a judicial review with the aim of overturning the decision.
“The one legal action we are going to consider tonight is whether we can go to judicial review to make these mayoral elections go ahead … we have talked to our lawyers and we are considering that.”
The Liberal Democrats’ local government spokesperson, Zöe Franklin, said the delay was “a disgrace” and that “democracy delayed is democracy denied”.
Defending the decision to broadcasters, the children’s minister Josh MacAlister said: “The people who are saying this are the same people who a few years ago were proroguing parliament. We’ll take no lectures from these people about democracy, protecting it, freedom of speech and all the rest of it.”
He added: “There are elections taking place next year – local authorities where they’re still in two tiers and haven’t reorganised that basic foundation of being a unitary council – it would be a rush to push for that now rather than get it right. But we’re not delaying the money that goes into those communities.”
The new mayoralties were announced under devolution reforms in February, which promised “sweeping” powers for local authorities to fast-track growth.
Elections in nine council areas – East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey – were already postponed from this year to 2026 amid the reorganisation of local government in England.
Reform UK enjoyed success in the local elections last May, winning more than 600 seats and taking control of 10 councils, including Kent and County Durham. The party also toppled a 14,000-strong Labour majority in a parliamentary byelection.
