Map shows where local elections will take place in May after Keir Starmer’s U-turn
Keir Starmer suffered his 14th U-turn of premiership after he dropped plans to delay 30 council elections.
Nigel Farage launched a legal battle, accusing Labour of trying to avoid bruising election defeats to Reform in the May 7 ballots.
The government then changed their mind after they received legal advice over their court fight with Reform.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will now provide an extra £62 million to help local authorities undergoing a restructure.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) spokesperson said today: ‘Following legal advice, the Government has withdrawn its original decision to postpone 30 local elections in May.
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‘Providing certainty to councils about their local elections is now the most crucial thing and all local elections will now go ahead in May 2026.’
The government also agreed to pay Reform’s £150,000 legal costs for mounting the challenge.
Mr Farage, who spearheaded the fight against the government’s original plans, said: ‘It’s a victory for Reform, but more importantly, it’s a victory for democracy in this country.
‘It seems to me that if a government minister does something illegal, they really ought to resign.’
The Labour Party now has to defend 2,558 seats from potential challengers, while the Conservatives are hoping to hold 1,362 seats.
The elections, taking place in councils across England, as well as the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments, are expected to be painful for the Labour Party as it suffers from low poll ratings.
Labour-led Worthing council said they were ‘disappointed’ by the government’s decision.
Council leader Sophie Cox told Metro that concerns ‘about our capacity to deliver local government reorganisation whilst also holding elections…remain entirely valid.’
She added: ‘It is therefore frustrating that financial compensation is now being offered, when this option was not put forward at the time those concerns were raised.’
Full list of local authorities in England hold elections on May 7
County councils
- East Sussex – Election taking place following U-turn
- Essex
- Hampshire
- Norfolk – Election taking place following U-turn
- Suffolk – Election taking place following U-turn
- West Sussex – Election taking place following U-turn
District councils
- Adur – Election taking place following U-turn
- Basildon – Election taking place following U-turn
- Basingstoke & Deane
- Brentwood
- Broxbourne
- Burnley – Election taking place following U-turn
- Cambridge
- Cannock Chase – Election taking place following U-turn
- Cheltenham – Election taking place following U-turn
- Cherwell
- Chorley – Election taking place following U-turn
- Colchester
- Crawley – Election taking place following U-turn
- Eastleigh
- Epping Forest
- Exeter – Election taking place following U-turn
- Fareham
- Gosport
- Harlow – Election taking place following U-turn
- Hart
- Hastings – Election taking place following U-turn
- Havant
- Huntingdonshire
- Hyndburn – Election taking place following U-turn
- Ipswich – Election taking place following U-turn
- Lincoln – Election taking place following U-turn
- Newcastle-under-Lyme
- Norwich – Election taking place following U-turn
- Nuneaton & Bedworth
- Oxford
- Pendle – Election taking place following U-turn
- Preston – Election taking place following U-turn
- Redditch – Election taking place following U-turn
- Rochford
- Rugby – Election taking place following U-turn
- Rushmoor
- South Cambridgeshire
- St Albans
- Stevenage – Election taking place following U-turn
- Tamworth – Election taking place following U-turn
- Three Rivers
- Tunbridge Wells
- Watford
- Welwyn Hatfield – Election taking place following U-turn
- West Lancashire – Election taking place following U-turn
- West Oxfordshire
- Winchester
- Worthing – Election taking place following U-turn
London boroughs
- Barking & Dagenham
- Barnet
- Bexley
- Brent
- Bromley
- Camden
- Croydon
- Ealing
- Enfield
- Greenwich
- Hackney
- Hammersmith & Fulham
- Haringey
- Harrow
- Havering
- Hillingdon
- Hounslow
- Islington
- Kensington & Chelsea
- Kingston upon Thames
- Lambeth
- Lewisham
- Merton
- Newham
- Redbridge
- Richmond upon Thames
- Southwark
- Sutton
- Tower Hamlets
- Waltham Forest
- Wandsworth
- Westminster
Metropolitan boroughs
- Barnsley
- Birmingham
- Bolton
- Bradford
- Bury
- Calderdale
- Coventry
- Dudley
- Gateshead
- Kirklees
- Knowsley
- Leeds
- Manchester
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- North Tyneside
- Oldham
- Rochdale
- Salford
- Sandwell
- Sefton
- Sheffield
- Solihull
- South Tyneside
- St Helens
- Stockport
- Sunderland
- Tameside
- Trafford
- Wakefield
- Walsall
- Wigan
- Wolverhampton
Unitary authorities
- Blackburn with Darwen – Election taking place following U-turn
- East Surrey (newly-created authority)
- Halton
- Hartlepool
- Hull
- Isle of Wight
- Milton Keynes
- North East Lincolnshire
- Peterborough – Election taking place following U-turn
- Plymouth
- Portsmouth
- Reading
- Southampton
- Southend-on-Sea
- Swindon
- Thurrock – Election taking place following U-turn
- West Surrey (newly-created authority)
- Wokingham
Electoral officials are now warning that they face an ‘uphill struggle’ to be ready to conduct the elections in the regions which expected not to hold them this year.
The Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA), which provides training for electoral officials in the UK, said on Monday it was ‘extremely disappointed’ that months of ‘essential planning time’ had been lost.
The AEA’s deputy chief executive Laura Lock said returning officers, electoral registration officers, and electoral administration teams ‘face an ”face an uphill struggle to catch up to where they should be’.
She added: ‘They have paused planning to avoid unnecessary cost, but this means they are now playing catch-up.’
However on Tuesday Lock was more optimistic that election stationary and polling booth venues would be ready in time for the May 7 election day.
She said: ‘The sector as a whole is pulling together and rapidly getting back up to speed to administer these elections.’
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