Dark days for democracy

For the second year in a row, millions will see their local elections cancelled by the government. 

In some areas, residents will go SEVEN years without having any say on who their local councillor is, how their local council is run and how billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is spent.

There has been outcry from the Electoral Commission, academics, members of the public and from right across the political spectrum. 

The Government is attempting to justify its decision by saying councils are too busy to hold local elections because of local government reorganisation. But this is undermined by the Electoral Commission saying that it’s not a legitimate reason not to hold elections, and also by the fact that many councils, going through the same reorganisation, are going ahead with elections.

Twenty seven councils have asked for a cancellation of elections this year. TWENTY of those councils have Labour leaders. More than half of those are areas of the country where Labour performed very badly in the 2025 elections. 

When an unpopular Government starts finding reasons to cancel elections, it’s little surprise that many conclude that the Government is doing this for its own political benefit. 

The Government rightly points out that elections have been cancelled before, but the only time we’ve seen cancellations on this scale was during the height of the Covid pandemic! Previously some council elections were cancelled at the very end of reorganisations - but only once the reorganisation was nearly complete. 

In this case, we are at least two years away from their completion and the shape of the new unitary authorities hasn’t even been determined yet. The Government’s timetable looks overly optimistic and it’s already put back elections for new devolved Mayors by two years. 

Democracy isn’t something you can simply put on ice for a few years because of a reorganisation!

Voters deserve, and are demanding, their say on what’s going on in their local communities. But what the voters want is well down the list of governmental priorities.

From having ambitious and welcome plans to devolve power away from Westminster, we’ve seen the Government shift to a complicated reorganisation of local councils which takes more power away from neighbourhoods and communities. 

The public has no voice at all in this process. No voice on the new shape of local government in their area. No voice on who’s running their current council for the foreseeable future. 

All of this has highlighted once again the need to modernise our democracy. Perhaps in the past the ‘good chaps’ theory meant that we didn’t need to have a rule saying that the Government can’t unilaterally cancel elections. Today we know we do.

It’s sad, but it’s the truth. We can’t help but wonder how Keir Starmer would react if it was a Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak or Nigel Farage government cancelling elections.

The Government will announce shortly which of the 27 Councils that applied will get to cancel their elections. Unlock Democracy is calling for an urgent debate on the issue in Parliament. Over 140,000 people have signed a petition on the government website calling for this to happen, but as yet, no date has been set.

Political parties are also looking at other options, from a judicial review, through to action in the courts or in Parliament, to ensure the elections take place. We wish those efforts well - this is about democracy, not party politics.

When they cancelled elections in 2025, the Government said elections were being ‘postponed’ for one year only. It was sold as a one off event. 2026 is proving that not to be true.  

Looking ahead, 2027 should be the biggest year of local elections in this Parliament. Or will it? Because based on what the Government has done in 2025 and in 2026, we will see many millions more having their elections cancelled in 2027, because their Council is ‘too busy’ to hold them. 

With what we’re seeing around the world happening to democracy, it’s painful in the extreme to see this happening at home. We wouldn’t normally doubt this Government’s commitment to democracy, but action speaks louder than words. 

Cancelling elections is dangerous for democracy. Centralising yet more power away from local communities is bad for democracy. Councillors and Council Leaders not having to face the electorate for seven years sets an alarming precedent for democracy. 

The Government needs to take a long hard look at its actions and ask itself whether it wants the optionality of elections to be its legacy.