The nine local elections that have been delayed – and why Nigel Farage is angry

Plans for major reforms to local government in England have seen several rounds of local elections planned for May cancelled.

British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has confirmed local elections will be delayed in nine areas of England. (Reuters)

Local elections scheduled across swathes of England later this year are set to be postponed for 12 months, in a move Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described as "outrageous".

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner announced the measure on Wednesday, in response to plans for a major overhaul of local government structures. According to the government, this is because several local authorities slated to head to the polls in the coming months could be abolished.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Rayner said: “The government’s starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there’s a strong justification for postponement, and the bar is high, and rightly so.

“I am only agreeing to half of the requests that were made. After careful consideration, I have only agreed to postpone elections in places where this is central to our manifesto promise to deliver devolution.

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“We’re not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won’t exist and where we don’t know what will replace them. This would be an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money, and any party calling for these elections to go ahead must explain how this waste would be justifiable.”

But at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Farage said the move was "completely outrageous" and said the Reform party was "blooming angry... that 5.5 million people in the country are being denied their vote this year".

Britain's Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage holds a dartboard, during a conference in Chester, Britain January 11, 2025. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage took to claim the government has 'cancelled' the chance to vote for more than five million people. (REUTERS)

Elections have been postponed in nine areas: East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey.

However, other elections are still due to take place on 1 May, all of which are in England.

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The list is divided into five sections: county councils, metropolitan boroughs, unitary authorities, combined-authority mayors and local authority directly-elected mayors.

County councils: Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Metropolitan boroughs: Doncaster

Unitary authorities: Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Durham, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, West Northamptonshire, Wiltshire

Combined-authority mayors: Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, Greater Lincolnshire, Hull & East Yorkshire

Late last year, the government published its English Devolution White Paper, setting out its plans for the future of local government in England.

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‘Two-tier’ local authorities are in the sights of reformers, with several councils to be merged or abolished in a drive to cut costs and simplify administration.

The proposals had already led to predictions of election delays in the areas most likely to be affected, with Rayner previously admitting it would be “ludicrous” for councils to hold elections if they were planning mergers.

A worker holds copies of the 'English Devolution White Paper', on the day Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner delivers a speech on devolution in Leeds, Britain, December 16, 2024. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Pool
The decision to delay some local elections has been prompted by last year's publication of the government's English Devolution White Paper. (Reuters)

Most councils across England operate as unitary authorities, where a single council is responsible for the provision of all major services across an area.

Under a two-tier system, a county council covers a large area with one set of responsibilities, with that area then subdivided into smaller independent district councils with a different set of roles.

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For example, while district councils would be responsible for collecting household bins under this system, the county council would be responsible for waste disposal – i.e. ensuring the contents of household bins have a recycling facility or landfill site where it can be sent.

In recent years, several former two-tier areas have been converted to unitary authorities, either voluntarily, as in the case of County Durham and Northumberland, or because they went bust, as in the case of the former Northamptonshire County Council.

These systems do not cover grassroots councils, such as parish councils and parish meetings, which do not apply to all areas of England.

Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party reacted angrily to the prospect of electoral delays, sharing a petition to social media and later holding a press conference under the headline "dictators cancel elections".

Several of the areas affected, not least Essex, where Farage has his House of Commons seat, are on the list of places where polling day will be postponed.

He said they were "particularly aggrieved" about the cancellation of elections in Norfolk and Essex, where he claimed the Reform Party had a good chance of winning local council seats.

"There is absolutely no justification" for postponing the elections, he said, adding that "people deserve to have a say".

A petition on the party’s website claims “the right to vote is being taken away in Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and the Isle of Wight because Westminster is absolutely terrified of the rise of Reform”.