Plans to elect a new regional mayor for Hampshire have been pushed back by three years, delaying a key part of the government’s wider devolution programme.
The election, originally expected in May next year, will now take place in May 2028. Ministers say they need more time to reorganise local government in the region before transferring new powers. They insist the delay will not halt progress on new housing, improved high streets and support for local businesses, which they say are “on the way”.
Opposition parties have condemned the move and accused Labour of avoiding the electorate. Shadow local government secretary Sir James Cleverly said ministers were “subverting democracy” by postponing a vote that had already been promised.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice went further, calling the delay a “deliberate, dictatorial cancelling of democracy”. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the decision was driven by concern over his party’s rising support. “There is just a fear of how successful Reform are doing,” he said.
Liberal Democrat spokesperson Zoe Franklin said her party would push for the vote to happen next May, arguing that “democracy delayed is democracy denied”.
Donna Jones, the Conservative candidate for Hampshire and the Solent, said delaying the election was a “disgrace and an affront to democracy”, adding that “Labour are afraid to face the British public at the ballot box”.
Green Party deputy leader Rachel Millward, who is standing for mayor in neighbouring Sussex & Brighton, said voters had a right to the mayoral elections the government had announced. “Labour’s whole devolution agenda has fallen into utter chaos,” she said. “They’re running scared of the voters and failing to solve the real problems in local government.”
The row stems from plans set out in February, when the then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner unveiled proposals for six new areas of regional devolution. Under the scheme, councils would form combined authorities led by directly elected mayors, intended to bring decision-making closer to the people they serve.
The future of those plans now rests on whether the government can push reforms through before the new timetable begins.
