Government abandons plans to delay 30 local elections in England

Plans to delay local elections in 30 councils across England have been abandoned by the government ahead of a High Court hearing.

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed has withdrawn the decision to postpone 30 council elections due to take place in May “in the light of recent legal advice”.

The decision comes ahead of a hearing due to take place on Thursday, after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage took the government to court in an attempt to prevent the elections from being delayed.

Reed will “seek to agree an order” with Reform UK to end the case and will “agree to pay the claimant’s costs of these proceedings”.

Of the 30 elections that were due to be postponed, 21 were in Labour-controlled councils, including Stevenage, Worthing, Thurrock, Norwich, Peterborough, Crawley and Chorley.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local government said: “Following legal advice, the government has withdrawn its original decision to postpone 30 local elections in May.

“Providing certainty to councils about their local elections is now the most crucial thing and all local elections will now go ahead in May 2026.”

Posting on social media, Nigel Farage claimed victory and said: “We took this Labour government to court and won. In collusion with the Tories, Keir Starmer tried to stop 4.6 million people voting on May 7. Only Reform UK fights for democracy.”

List of councils which had planned to delay elections

• Adur (Labour)
• Basildon (Labour)
• Blackburn with Darwen (Labour)
• Burnley (No overall control)
• Cannock Chase (Labour)
• Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat)
• Chorley (Labour)
• Crawley (Labour)
• East Sussex (Conservative)
• Exeter (Labour)
• Harlow (Conservative)
• Hastings (No overall control)
• Hyndburn (Labour)
• Ipswich (Labour)
• Lincoln (Labour)
• Norfolk (Conservative)
• Norwich (Labour)
• Peterborough (Labour)
• Pendle (No overall control)
• Preston (Labour)
• Redditch (Labour)
• Rugby (Labour)
• Tamworth (Labour)
• Thurrock (Labour)
• Stevenage (Labour)
• Suffolk (Conservative)
• Welwyn Hatfield (Labour)
• West Lancashire (Labour)
• West Sussex (Conservative)
• Worthing (Labour)

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