Fears Labour could deny millions the vote by cancelling elections

Labour could deny millions of Britons the chance to vote by cancelling even more elections next year, a polling guru last night warned.

The fear of an electoral wipeout in May ‘is now influencing much thinking within the Labour Party’ and could see Sir Keir Starmer delay further polls, Lord Hayward said.

The pollster has predicted Reform UK will be the biggest winner, while Labour is likely to come off worst – and that a poor performance would add ‘substantially to the fire’ for the Prime Minister.

Lord Hayward added that Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s position is looking more assured, too.

The Tory peer said: ‘I am not convinced that further elections will not be cancelled. In some counties, the position about future local government structures is so uncertain that it might even make sense to defer.’

Millions of people in Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Sussex and Brighton, and Norfolk and Suffolk have already been denied a vote in mayoral elections until 2028.

Meanwhile, almost ten million more voters face having their local elections delayed until 2027 after the Government asked more than 60 district and county councils if they wanted to suspend elections due in May 2026.

Reform leader Nigel Farage has said the Prime Minister is turning Britain into a ‘banana republic’.

But Labour has blamed the delays on local councils needing ‘more time’ to merge into unitary authorities under its plans.