The Liberal Democrats have accused Conservative councils of “running scared” and “silencing democracy” as the deadline for councils to apply for election postponement expires.
The government gave councils until 10 January to say if they would prefer to delay May’s local elections while devolution plans for changes to local authorities are considered. Several councils have held urgent meetings to decide whether to press ahead.
Elections are due to take place in 21 county council areas in England on 1 May, as well as some unitary authorities and elections for some regional mayors. But reports suggest more than half of the county councils in England with elections scheduled for this year could seek to have the votes postponed.
As part of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s devolution white paper, every area governed by two-tier county and district councils has been asked to submit plans for mergers to create larger unitary authorities with about 500,000 people in each.
Speaking in December, local government minister Jim McMahon said the government “may look at postponing” some local elections, but added: “It wouldn’t be for longer than a couple of months, a year.”
County council leaders had been told to inform Rayner’s housing, communities and local government department by Friday if they wanted to postpone elections for 12 months. Fifteen councils, covering 12.7 million people and 9.3 million registered voters, have reportedly done so. Twelve of those are run by the Conservatives.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper MP said: “The Liberal Democrats made sweeping gains against the Conservatives at the general election from Devon to Surrey. Now Conservative councils are running scared and attempting to delay these local elections, to avoid voters appalled with their record of failure.
“This attempt to silence the voice of millions is a scandal. Democracy delayed is democracy denied. The Liberal Democrats will keep fighting to ensure these elections go ahead in May as planned.”
Decisions on which elections to postpone will be taken by ministers by mid-February.
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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