County council elections have not been ‘cancelled’ for the first time since World War Two

Posts on social media have claimed that county council elections due to take place in May 2025 have been cancelled “for the first time since World War II”. 

But this isn’t the case—some county council elections were delayed back in 2021, and other local elections delayed in 2020 and 2019.

As we’ve explained previously, local elections that were due to take place in May in seven county councils—East Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey and West Sussex—have been postponed to May 2026, so that the areas involved can move from a two-tier system of local government to a single-tier unitary authority.

While politicians from different parties and even the local government minister have referred to the prospect of council elections being “cancelled”, the government has generally used the term “postponed”, as the delayed votes are due to take place in May 2026 for interim ‘shadow’ unitary councils which will cover these areas. 

Contrary to the claims on social media, this has happened before, far more recently than the Second World War. In May 2021, under the previous Conservative government, elections that were due to take place in three county councils—Cumbria, Somerset and North Yorkshire—were delayed until May 2022 as those councils moved to become unitary authorities.

Other types of council have also had elections delayed for various reasons. In 2019 and 2020 too, some district council elections were also cancelled due to reorganisation, while others saw delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak. 

False or misleading claims online have the potential to harm individuals, groups and democratic processes and institutions. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.