Portsmouth rejects election delay amid local government shake-up

The leader of Portsmouth City Council has ruled out seeking to postpone the local election, despite the government offering delays, saying “democracy cannot be interrupted”.

Labour ministers have suggested that local elections could be postponed if councils request a delay by January 15.

The Labour government is pursuing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), which would replace the current two-tier system of county and district councils with larger unitary authorities providing all services to populations of around 500,000.

For Portsmouth, this could involve absorbing the council areas of Gosport, Fareham and Havant.

According to the government, some councils have questioned their capacity to carry out LGR while also holding elections, and whether it is good value for taxpayers to elect councils that could soon be abolished.

Ministers have now written to all 63 councils affected by LGR that are due to hold elections in May, asking them to confirm whether they want a delay.

This follows news earlier this month that the election for the new devolved mayor for Hampshire and the Solent has been postponed until 2028.

Portsmouth’s Liberal Democrat council leader Steve Pitt has already gone on public record to say he will not seek to delay the local elections.

He said: “There will be no request to the government for a postponement of our elections. Democracy cannot be interrupted because of the Labour government’s chaotic handling of both devolution and local government reorganisation.”

“I am totally exasperated with this inept government. First they force through their plans to abolish Portsmouth City Council and all the other Hampshire councils, without a shred of evidence to show how it will in any way benefit our residents.

“The evidence shows it will actually do the opposite and push Portsmouth into a position of financial stress. Then they flip flop over the election of the Mayor and throw us some crumbs of funding in the hope of getting us to be grateful and now they are mucking about with elections again.

“This is a government unable to govern and floundering a chaotic soup of its own making. They need to get a grip.”