Are this year’s local elections being ‘cancelled’?

In recent weeks we’ve seen lots of claims about council elections in May being “cancelled”—from politicians, in the media and on social media, where some have also  suggested the elections have been cancelled “till 2027” or are set to be cancelled “for the first time since World War II”.  

The claims are based on the news that some councils have asked to delay elections which were due to take place this May, due to a reorganisation of local government. As a result, some local elections in England may end up being postponed, and will likely take place in May 2026 instead, though we don’t yet know which councils this will affect. 

The prospect of postponement has attracted fierce criticism from some politicians from across the political spectrum, with one Conservative MP calling it “anti-democratic”, the Liberal Democrats describing it as a “scandal” and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claiming: “Only dictators cancel elections.” 

Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats have criticised the Conservatives, as most of the councils that have asked for election delays are Conservative-led. The government says “no decisions have been taken on postponing elections in specific areas”, that postponements will only be considered to “help an area to deliver reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeline” and that there is a “well-established precedent” for postponing elections due to reorganisation. 

Here’s what we know about what’s happening.

Why could some council elections be postponed? 

Some councils in England with elections scheduled for May 2025, including all county councils and some unitary authorities, have been able to ask the government for these to be postponed, if the councils wish to take part in the first phase of the government’s reorganisation plans. 

The government wants to move councils in two-tier forms of local government—where responsibility for an area is currently split between county councils and district councils—to single-tier unitary authorities. Councils currently in two-tier arrangements, and neighbouring pre-existing unitary authorities, had until earlier this month to decide if they wished to take part in the transition at this point. 

Some 16 county councils and two unitary authorities asked the government for permission to postpone their local elections. But, as it stands, we don’t know which councils are going to be taking part in this phase of reorganisation. 

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”, with delayed votes expected to take place in May 2026. 

What local elections are currently scheduled for May 2025?

A number of local authority elections in England are due to take place on 1 May 2025, including for all 21 county councils, nine unitary councils and one metropolitan district council (City of Doncaster).

Some areas of England are covered by a single unitary authority, while others are covered by the “two-tier” system, in which responsibility for services is shared between the 21 county councils and the 164 district councils they cover. 

What is Labour’s plan for local government?

In its ‘English Devolution White Paper’, published in December, the government said it would “facilitate a programme of local government reorganisation for two-tier areas”, as well as unitary councils “where there is evidence of failure or where their size or boundaries may be hindering their ability to deliver sustainable and high-quality public services”. 

The government said unitary councils “can lead to better outcomes for residents, save significant money which can be reinvested in public services, and improve accountability with fewer politicians”. It said that “for most areas”, new unitary councils would cover a population of 500,000 or more. 

However some academics have raised questions about the benefits of large unitary councils over smaller ones, and some politicians have expressed concerns over how effectively large councils will be able to serve rural communities.

Which councils have applied?

Councils had a deadline of 10 January 2025 to ask to be involved in the first phase of the reorganisation programme and to ask the government to postpone their local elections. Councils were required to “follow their own relevant processes or votes before any requests are made”. 

On 15 January, the government published a list of 18 councils that had applied to take part in the programme along with “requests that involve postponing their election from 2025 to 2026”. This list includes 16 of England’s county councils and two unitary authorities—Thurrock and the Isle of Wight. 

Thirteen of the 16 county councils that have requested a delay are under Conservative control: Derbyshire, Devon, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex and Worcestershire. Three—East Sussex, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire—are under no overall control. 

But—contrary to some suggestions we’ve seen on social media—we don’t yet know which councils will be selected to take part in the first phase of the programme, and if all of those selected will end up having their scheduled elections postponed.

The government hasn’t said exactly when the list of councils selected will be announced. Mr McMahon said on 15 January that “statutory invitations go out at the end of the month” and that the government would “seek to give clarity by the end of the month”. 

The Times has reported that “it is thought that no more than ten county councils will be selected”, though this isn’t something we’ve been able to verify. 

In a December 2024 letter to council leaders, Mr McMahon said he intended to ask for interim plans from councils by March 2025, and that the government “expect to deliver new unitary authorities in April 2027 and 2028”. 

What does this mean for this year’s elections?

We know that elections are definitely going ahead in the county councils that haven’t requested a delay—Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. Likewise, the majority of the May elections planned for unitary councils, and the City of Doncaster election, won’t be affected. So broad claims on social media that “2025 local elections [have been] cancelled” are potentially misleading, as many definitely won’t be.  

But because we don’t know which councils the government will choose for reorganisation, we don’t yet know which will have their elections delayed.

Mr McMahon said on 15 January that “not all areas listed will go forward to be part of the devolution priority programme”. 

The government’s website said it will “only postpone elections where there is a clear commitment to delivering both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe”, and that its “starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there is a strong justification”.

In his December 2024 letter, Mr McMahon said he was “minded to lay secondary legislation to postpone local council elections from May 2025 to May 2026”, but again that he would “only do this where this will help the area to deliver both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe”. 

These rescheduled elections wouldn’t be for the county councils. Mr McMahon said on 15 January: “If reorganisation is a genuine proposal—and the bar has to be high for that test—it is nonsense to have elections to bodies that simply will not exist. It is far better that we move at pace and create the new unitary councils and then hold elections at the earliest opportunity.”

He referred to these as elections to a “shadow unitary council” in his December letter, and said this was the “usual arrangement in the process of local government reorganisation”. Indeed, this was the case when Cumbria County Council was reorganised, for example. 

Where do claims about nine million voters being affected come from? 

A number of posts we’ve seen on social media have claimed that nine million people could be left unable to vote due to council elections being postponed. Similarly, reporting before the deadline for applications passed, The Times said 15 councils who’d asked to take part in the programme cover “12.7 million people and 9.3 million registered voters”. 

By our calculations, the government’s list of 16 county councils and two unitary authorities appears to cover 11.1 million electoral registrations, but as the government hasn’t yet confirmed which councils will be selected or which councils will have delayed elections, we don’t yet know how many of these registered voters will be unable to cast a ballot in May 2025. 

Has this happened before?

Some on social media have suggested that if council elections are postponed in May, it will be the first time this has happened “since World War II”. But this isn’t correct.

Under the previous Conservative government, local elections in three county councils and three district councils that had been scheduled to take place in May 2021 were delayed until May 2022, as the councils moved to become unitary authorities. In 2019 and 2020 too, some district council elections were also cancelled due to reorganisation.

And local elections have been postponed for other reasons in the past, for example due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 and the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001.