Government backs 2026 local elections

The government has indicated that local elections due to take place in Lancashire next year will go ahead – in spite of calls from four of the county’s councils to cancel them.

Speaking in the Commons, local government minister Miatta Fahnbulleh said the Labour administration would be “cracking on” with the polls scheduled for May 2026.

Her comments came after Blackburn with Darwen, Preston, Chorley and Hyndburn councils requested that the votes in their areas be scrapped.

The push to pull the plug came against the backdrop of a government-ordered shake-up that will see all 15 of Lancashire’s main councils abolished and replaced with a handful of new authorities – covering merged areas – in April 2028.

Elections to so-called ‘shadow’ versions of those new bodies will be held in May 2027 – prompting four of the seven Lancashire councils with polls set to be staged next year to suggest that they should be ditched.

The Labour-run authorities argued, variously, that the reorganisation and transition process required a period of political stability and that money could be saved by not holding final elections to councils whose days were numbered.

However, during a parliamentary discussion last Thursday (4th December), Ms. Fahnbulleh said:  “Local elections will go ahead in 2026 – that has been and continues to be our position.”

Both the current government and the previous Conservative administration have approved election cancellations in parts of the country that have been through the same overhaul now taking place in Lancashire – and the minister did still leave the door ajar to that possibility next year, adding:

“We are a responsible government, so if there are extenuating circumstances on the ground in particular councils, we will have that conversation with them.”

However, as reorganisation is happening in 21 counties across England, it would appear that ministers will require a case that goes behind that bare fact in order to agree to scrapping the planned votes.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) invited the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – the department to which Miatta Fahnbulleh belongs – to comment on its stance.

Preston City Council leader Matthew Brown said he was “aware” of the comments made in the Commons, but that the authority had “yet to receive any formal notification on this issue”.

He added:  “We are already geared up for next May’s elections with many excellent Labour candidates in place where we will fight on our local record.

“However, part of our campaign will focus on the future and what a Labour-run unitary [new standalone council] would look like for Preston, considering we are going through the biggest change in local government for over 50 years.

“I hope other parties outline their visions of the future also, so voters have a clear understanding of the competing visions available.”

As the LDRS previously revealed, the decision by Preston’s cabinet to seek cancellation of the city election next May had prompted criticism from opposition parties.

Responding to the news that the poll now appeared to be going ahead as planned, the leader of the Liberal Democrat main opposition group, John Potter, said he was “glad”, adding:  “Labour shouldn’t cancel elections just because they are running scared of local people.

“There are a lot of people who want their say in Preston, and the Lib Dems are the only people who can deliver a positive change.”

Conservative group leader Harry Landless said he was “pleased” that the government had all but ruled out cancelling the vote.

“I think it’s democratically right – we have to test the public mood,” he said.

Meanwhile, the lone Reform representative at the town hall, Stephen Thompson, suggested his party’s opponents would be downbeat at the prospect of a vote.

“With the hint that the elections will go ahead in May, the main parties will not be too pleased as Reform is so far ahead in the polls.

“I don’t take the residents for granted and will be campaigning to make sure they know we are here for them.

“Preston’s Labour group have asked the government to cancel elections, which – given their dialogue [about] honouring democratic rights for residents to vote – would seem contradictory, if not hypocritical,” Cllr Thompson said.

Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Phil Riley told the LDRS that he was still awaiting “ a formal response” from the government to the authority’s election cancellation request.

Chorley and Hyndburn councils were also approached for comment.

Of the other three Lancashire authorities with elections due in May 2026, Pendle’s Liberal Democrat leader, David Whipp, had said he wanted them to go ahead, while Burnley‘s independent leader, Afrasiab Anwar, had called for clarity one way or the other.  West Lancashire Borough Council had previously told the LDRS it was not aware of any prospect of cancellation.

However, the possibility of that outcome last month prompted Reform-led Lancashire County Council – which is not itself due for an election in 2026 – to write to the government to call for a guarantee that next year’s votes would proceed and also to repeal the legislation that gave ministers the option of cancelling local elections “without a debate and vote in Parliament”.

Speaking during a County Hall discussion on a motion proposing that move, Reform county councillor Tom Lord said that to cancel elections on the basis of considerations such as cost would be to “demean” them.  That, he added, would be “an insult to the sacrifices of those soldiers and suffragettes – men and women – who paid the ultimate price in order to establish this process which we enjoy and participate in”.

The motion was backed by the Progressive Lancashire opposition group of independents and Greens, along with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.  The Labour group abstained.

Miatta Fahnbulleh made her comments about the status of next year’s local council elections in places like Lancashire in the wake of a decision by the government to postpone inaugural mayoral elections in four areas where they had also been due to be held in May 2026.

She said it was important to “distinguish” between the two – with the mayoral polls being pulled in order to allow council reorganisation taking those places to be completed first.

“There is a clear distinction…between local council elections, which are scheduled and run to a rhythm, and inaugural mayoral elections, which we have not had before,” Ms. Fahnbulleh said.