Nigel Farage today claimed Britain is turning into a ‘banana republic’ following reports Labour is ready to delay local council elections again for millions of voters.
Ministers are said to be ready to ask county councils in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hampshire and West Sussex if they want to suspend contests for a second year.
The Tory-controlled local authorities all postponed elections that had been scheduled for May this year until 2026, affecting up to five million people.
This was due to Labour’s reorganisation of local government, which will abolish the two-tier system of county and district councils in favour of single larger authorities.
The Times reported that elections in these areas could now be pushed back further until 2027, following lobbying by council leaders.
Steve Reed, the Local Government Secretary, is said to have listened to the councils’ concerns about their ability to deliver the planned reorganisation without a delay.
Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader, claimed Tory-led councils were ‘colluding’ with Labour to again postpone elections in which his party is expected to perform well.
Earlier this month, the Government delayed elections for newly-created mayors in the same areas until 2028.
Mr Farage said: ‘Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. Tory county councils look set to collude with Labour to keep their control until 2027.’
He added that ‘only a banana republic bans elections’ as he called on Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to ‘instruct her council leaders to allow elections to go ahead’.
Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, also expressed his anger at reports the county council elections could be suspended once more.
He said: This is looking like yet another Labour and Conservative stitch-up to deny people their votes in May.
‘Kemi Badenoch must stop her Conservative council leaders from delaying elections yet again just because they are running scared of the Liberal Democrats.’
Senior Tory MP Sir James Cleverly, the shadow local government secretary, noted how Mr Reed recently said he intended for all elections set for May 2026 to go ahead.
He said: ‘Labour promised council elections would go ahead as planned as recently as last week. Now they’re saying they won’t. Another broken promise.
‘Voters will now be denied the right to elect their own representatives – and not for the first time under this Labour Government.
‘Labour are scared of the voters. They thought they could completely overhaul local government and stack the deck in their favour. They were wrong.’
Sir James added it ‘cannot be right’ that some councillors could now serve seven-year terms.
