Six local Lancashire elections called off

Six of the seven local elections due to take place in Lancashire in May have been called off by the government.

The plug has been pulled on polls that were due to take place in the Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Chorley, Hyndburn, Preston and West Lancashire council areas. However, voting will go ahead as planned in Pendle.

Ministers invited any councils that are due to be abolished in 2028 – and which also had what would be their last ever set of elections scheduled for this year – the opportunity to make the case for cancelling the votes.

They asked the authorities to set out any concerns they had about having the capacity to manage both elections and the complex local government reorganisation (LGR) process that is poised to begin.

Labour-led Blackburn with Darwen, Chorley, Hyndburn and Preston, and coalition-controlled Burnley and Pendle all did so – after formal votes in their councils or cabinets.

West Lancashire’s ruling Labour leader made the request in her capacity as group leader alone, as the council did not reach a formal position on the issue.

In contrast, Pendle Council officially backed cancellation by a majority, in spite of the authority’s Liberal Democrat leader David Whipp being opposed to the move.     However, his group was out-voted by independent councillors within his own ruling coalition, who joined opposition Tories in calling for the elections to be scrapped.

Cllr Whipp told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) he was “pleased” the polls were going ahead.

“I’m looking forward to taking on Reform and their appalling record of mismanagement in Lancashire,” he added.

West Lancashire Borough Council leader Yvonne Gagen said cancellation was “the right decision based on the amount of work around LGR – and we can now focus our efforts on that.”.

John Potter, leader of the Lib Dem opposition group on Preston City Council, said of the news shortly after it broke on Thursday: “The Preston Labour Party, with their massively unpopular government, have shamefully decided to cancel the local elections in May.

“As the largest opposition group and the most electorally successful political party in the city over recent years, it is obvious Labour were running scared of the beating they would take at the ballot box from the Lib Dems and others.

“Our brilliant team of candidates and volunteers will continue to campaign. All Labour have done is delay the inevitable and give the Lib Dems an extra few months to take power off them in May 2027 new unitary elections.”

Preston City Council’s Labour leader Matthew Brown has been approached for comment. Speaking last month, he said his cabinet was making the cancellation request, because it was taking the reorganisation process “extremely seriously”.

“We’ve been involved in negotiations for a significant period of time. Those negotiations have involved the 15 [Lancashire council] leaders, MPs [and] ministers .

“It’s the biggest change that we are going to have in local government since 1974 – [and] obviously we want to make sure that the process…is efficient …and we think it’s proportionate to request that elections be suspended just for the one year,” said Cllr Brown.

The Reform UK leader of Lancashire County Council, Stephen Atkinson, had written to the government urging them not to cancel any of the polls in Lancashire, saying there was “absolutely no reason” to do so.

After the decision emerged, he told the LDRS:  “I’m delighted that, despite the best efforts to deprive residents of their democratic rights, the Pendle elections will be going ahead.

“The other authorities should be ashamed of themselves. Labour are running scared of facing Reform at the ballot box. British people value democracy and will not forget this betrayal.

“Reform UK’s judicial review to force these elections to go ahead is well under way and it has my full backing.”

Reform this week produced polling showing it would have achieved the largest vote shares in Chorley and Hyndburn and been the runner-up by that measure in Preston and Blackburn with Darwen, were the planned local contests to be staged in May.

Elections to so-called ‘shadow’ versions of the replacement councils for the whole of Lancashire – the size and shape of which will be decided by ministers in the summer – will be held in May 2027, ahead of them formally coming into being on 1st April, 2028.

Elsewhere in Lancashire, Blackpool, Fylde, Lancaster, Ribble Valley, South Ribble Rossendale, Wyre and Lancashire county councils were not due to stage elections in 2026. 

The government has described the changes it has approved to this year’s election schedule as a “postponement” of the polls.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Steve Reed said in a letter to council leaders explaining his decision on the local elections:

“This decision follows a comprehensive consideration of all the evidence available to me. I have listened to concerns regarding the resource pressures of running intensive elections for councils proposed for abolition shortly thereafter.

“By delaying these elections, I am confident that we will be releasing essential capacity within councils to allow your teams to focus their full energy on the complex reorganisation process, while also addressing concerns regarding the cost of holding elections for bodies that will soon cease to exist.

“This move ensures our continued delivery against an ambitious timetable that sees new councils going live in April 2028, delivering on our promise to create sustainable, effective structures within this Parliament.

“For a number of councils, we received representations indicating that they had the capacity required for elections to proceed during the process of local government reorganisation; representations indicating postponement would be helpful but without sufficient evidence of the impact on capacity; or postponement was not sought. For these councils, elections will go ahead as planned.”

A total of 29 scheduled elections will not now be taking place across England on the dates they were due.