The government is set to postpone elections for newly created mayors in four areas of England, the BBC has confirmed.
The new mayoralties in Greater Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, Hampshire and the Solent, and Sussex and Brighton were due to be contested in May next year but will elections will instead be in 2028.
A formal announcement is expected later. The government will argue that the areas need more to time to complete their local government reorganisation.
Opposition parties are calling for the elections to go ahead as planned, with shadow local government secretary James Cleverly accusing Labour of “subverting democracy”.
These new positions were announced under an extension of the government’s devolution priority programme (DPP) in February, which promised “sweeping” powers for local authorities to fast track growth and said the new positions would be created “at pace”.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice called the move a “deliberate, dictatorial cancelling of democracy”.
“There is just a fear of how successful Reform are doing, they’ve been talking about these mayoral elections for years and years, they’ve been getting ready,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrats local government spokesperson Zoe Franklin said the party would work to see the vote next May does go ahead, adding, “democracy delayed is democracy denied”.
And the Conservative candidate for Hampshire and the Solent called the decision to delay them a “disgrace and an affront to democracy”.
“It is clear Labour are afraid to face the British public at the ballot box,” Donna Jones said.
The government had announced the original election date when they said in February that six new areas were joining the DPP.
It said the plans were the “key to unlocking regional growth” and came after “political power has been hoarded in Whitehall” for “too long”.
But the body representing district councils warned at the time that the plans could spark “turmoil” and argued “mega-councils” could undermine local decision-making.
Cumbria and the soon-to-be merged triple councils of Cheshire and Warrington were due to have local mayors elected in May 2026 but both have been pushed back by a year.
The former was postponed in a bid to save money, while the latter was delayed after concerns from local leaders.
