Nigel Farage accused Keir Starmer of ‘not believing in democracy’ today after it emerged more elections are being delayed amid dire polls for Keir Starmer.

The Reform leader condemned the PM’s ‘monstrous’ move in postponing four mayoral contests from May to 2028.

The decision will affect 7.5million residents in Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Sussex and Brighton, and Norfolk and Suffolk.

Ministers argue that more time is needed to finish reorganising local authorities in England.

But critics point out that Sir Keir is trying to ‘save his skin’ from an electoral hammering, as polls show his party trailing far behind Reform.

Even Labour MPs voiced concerns, with former minister Jim McMahon saying the government had to be ‘better than this’.

Battles in nine council areas, East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey have already been postponed from this year to 2026.

Nigel Farage has been expecting to make gains in the local elections in May

Labour is facing fury today after it emerged more elections are being delayed amid dire polls for Keir Starmer

Nigel Farage said that Labour are ‘at it again’ after the announcement about the mayoral elections

The Electoral Calculus website pointed out that Reform were leading on voting intention in the latest areas where elections have been delayed – although the figures represent party support rather than mayoral candidates

Reform UK enjoyed success in the local elections last May, winning more than 600 seats and taking control of 10 councils stretching from Kent to Co Durham. The party also toppled a 14,000-strong Labour majority in a parliamentary by-election.

Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice this morning accused Sir Keir of ‘running scared’, swiping that ‘generally it’s dictators that cancel elections’.

‘Some 7.5 million people are now going to be denied the opportunity of voting in mayoral elections,’ he said.

‘Funny isn’t it, we’ve just announced our mayoral candidates for all of these areas and all of a sudden the Government, terrified of losing to Reform, are cancelling them.’

He added that a two-year delay ‘is a deliberate dictatorial cancelling of democracy in the United Kingdom and we shouldn’t tolerate it’.

Reform leader Nigel Farage, who is the MP for Clacton in Essex, branded town hall reorganisation a ‘dog’s dinner’ and told the Commons ‘the public don’t understand what’s going on’.

The Tories also condemned the plans, which were confirmed in the Commons this morning.

And Mr McMahon said in the Commons: ‘I need to be blunt, as I usually am – we need to be better than this.’

The Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton MP, who was a local government minister until earlier this year, added: ‘Local leaders across the political spectrum worked in good faith.

‘They put aside self interest and differences, and they did everything asked of them to secure a better settlement for the people that they represent.

‘They reasonably expected the Government to do the same.’

Mr McMahon told MPs the Government ‘had a moral and a legal obligation to honour its side of the bargain following a statute process – all involved had a reasonable expectation that these elections would go ahead, and the Government knows that trust is hard won but is easily squandered’.

Cllr Matthew Hicks, chairman of the County Councils Network, said: ‘Less than a year ago, this government promised a ‘devolution revolution’ to extend the benefits of new powers and funding to county and rural areas whose economic potential has been overlooked for far too long.

‘County councils have pulled out all the stops to ensure new county combined authorities were up and running before next May, investing significant time and resources to do so. Therefore, today’s announcement is bitterly disappointing, preventing these areas accessing all the funding and powers they were promised from May 2026 and is a missed opportunity for a government who has put national growth as its central mission.’

The new mayoralties were announced in February under devolution plans, which also promised the replacement of two-tier district and county councils with one body.

Downing Street repeatedly declined to apologise for delaying the mayoral elections, insisting that the changes were about ensuring devolution in ‘a pragmatic and structured way’.

Asked whether the Government accepted it had failed by not overseeing a reorganisation at local authority level in time for the votes that had been planned for next year, a No10 spokesman said: ‘Well, it’s important that mayors start their jobs and these inaugural mayoral elections with the right structures and the foundations to succeed.

‘That is the absolute focus.’

The spokesman added: ‘This is about taking pragmatic steps as we reorganise local government so that it’s more efficient and effective as we devolve more powers to local leaders to give them the opportunity to help deliver opportunity and prosperity in their communities, that we do it in a pragmatic and structured way.’

A written statement laid in the House included a long description of funding plans for mayoral areas – before mentioning almost in passing that the elections will be delayed.

Communities Secretary Steve Reed said in the statement: ‘The Government is also minded to hold the inaugural mayoral elections for Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Greater Essex in May 2028, with areas completing the local government reorganisation process before Mayors take office.

‘This is because devolution is strongest when it is built on strong foundations, therefore moving forward we will ensure strong unitary structures are in place before areas take on mayoral devolution.’

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called the postponement of elections for some newly-created mayoralties ‘a scandal’.

She told broadcasters during a visit to a West London school: ‘The excuse that it’s about local government reorganisation doesn’t wash. They’ve had plenty of time to do this.

‘What we’re seeing is a Labour Government that wasn’t actually ready for government, and they’ve come in and they’re making up their plans as they go along.

‘People need their democracy. They want to have a chance to vote for their local representatives.’

Shadow local government secretary Sir James Cleverly said it was an ‘attempt to subvert democracy by a Labour government whose credibility and popularity are already in tatters’.

‘The Conservatives firmly oppose this decision to delay the mayoral elections, especially when candidates have been selected and campaigning is well under way,’ he said.

Lib Dem frontbencher Zoe Franklin described the proposals as a ‘disgrace’.

She said: ‘Democracy delayed is democracy denied. We are fighting to end this blatant stitch up between Labour and the Conservatives over local elections. The Liberal Democrats will keep working to give millions of people their vote back in May.’

Tory Mayoral Candidate for Hampshire Donna Jones said: ‘It is clear Labour are afraid to face the British public at the ballot box.

‘All Labour’s supposed grand plans for this country have collapsed under their own ineptitude, and it is the British people who are paying the price.

‘Our county needs leadership on policing, transport and growth, but Labour are paralysed by their own chaos and endless political manoeuvring.

‘Keir Starmer is sacrificing people’s democratic right to save his own skin.’

Almost £200million in funding for six regions across England has been announced, as the Government tried to blunt the backlash.

Cheshire and Warrington will receive £21.7million, Cumbria £11.1million, Greater Essex £41.5million, Hampshire and the Solent £44.6million, Norfolk and Suffolk £37.4million, and Sussex and Brighton £38million.

Labour is overhauling the existing devolution arrangements in England

Children’s minister Josh MacAlister defended the delay as he toured broadcast studios this morning.

‘I represent a constituency in Cumbria. We’re going to have a mayoral election in Cumbria. The reason we’re going ahead in 2027 it’s all very technical, but the reason we’re going ahead in 2027 is that we have unitary local authorities that have already been reorganised,’ he said.

‘The other parts of the country that are having a postponement have still got districts and county levels to be reorganised a year in a row… The last government had 14 years to do devolution properly and got barely anywhere with it, so we’re speeding this up in a major way, pushing power down to communities.

‘Doing that means elected mayors, yes, but also getting money into these areas for new economic regeneration. And the final thing is, the people who are saying this are the same people who, not that many years ago, were proroguing Parliament. We will take no lectures from these people about democracy, protecting it, freedom of speech and all the rest of it.’

Asked whether he could see how it looked suspicious amid Labour’s slump in the polls and speculation about the prospect of a leadership challenge following the local elections, the children’s minister said: ‘There are elections taking place next year. Local authorities, where they’re still in two tiers, and they haven’t reorganised that basic foundation of being a unitary council – it would be a rush to push for that now, rather than get it right. But we’re not delaying the money that’s going into those communities.’