{"id":68146,"date":"2025-12-18T18:16:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/?p=68146"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:17:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:17:29","slug":"council-leader-criticises-government-plans-to-postpone-local-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/council-leader-criticises-government-plans-to-postpone-local-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Leader criticises government plans to postpone local elections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Government plans to delay next May\u2019s local elections have been greeted with outrage from Devon County Council Leader Julian Brazil.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 60 councils across England involved in local government reorganisation (LGR), have been invited to give their views on whether they want to postpone elections that are due to be held in May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exeter City Council and Plymouth City Council are among those that have been written to by The Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness, Alison McGovern MP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The letter from the Minister states that it\u2019s seeking views on whether the elections should go ahead because of concerns about, \u201ccapacity to deliver a smooth and safe transition to new councils, alongside running resource-intensive elections to councils who may be shortly abolished\u201d.&nbsp; Any postponement would see elections pushed back to 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The move has drawn stinging criticism from Councillor Brazil. <\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"block_acf-block-694444e259d9a\" class=\"councillor-quote align-right dcc grid-x\">\r\n\t<blockquote class=\"councillor-quote-blockquote medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n                    <div class=\"councillor-quote-title\"><p>Councillor Julian Brazil, Devon County Council Leader<\/p><\/div>\r\n        \t\t<div class=\"councillor-quote-text\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo mess with democracy and cancel the opportunity for people to have their say or vent their frustration is an incredibly dangerous thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s this kind of double dealing and dishonesty that frustrates people. It\u2019s right out of the Putin school of politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe won\u2019t know what LGR will look like before the elections in May. Any postponement of the elections could create a pool of people with no mandate other than one that has already run out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all know what they\u2019re doing. Government Ministers are putting political self-interest first, rather than democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Prime Minister is trying to save his political life. He talks about putting the country first, but you can see it for what it is \u2013 a complete load of tosh. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n        <div class=\"councillor-quote-aside medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n\t<figure class=\"councillor-quote-image grid-x\">\r\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small-6 cell medium-12\" src=\"https:\/\/democracy.devon.gov.uk\/UserData\/7\/1\/1\/Info00000117\/bigpic.jpg\" alt=\"Councillor Julian Brazil\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\r\n        <figcaption class=\"councillor-quote-description small-6 cell medium-12\" >\r\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/democracy.devon.gov.uk\/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=117\" rel=\"noopener\">Councillor Julian Brazil, Leader of the Council<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n            <\/figure>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    \r\n    <\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local councils that are due to hold elections in May 2026 have until 15 January to respond to Government on the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":68112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24,10],"tags":[2231,2265,2261],"class_list":["post-68146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dcc-homepage","category-democracy","tag-councillor-julian-brazil","tag-local-elections","tag-local-government-reorganisation"],"acf":[],"featured_image":{"ID":68112,"title":"Julian Brazil - Devon County New Councillors May 25-261 (1)","alt":"Leader of Devon County Council, Councillor Julian Brazil","description":"","caption":"","url":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled.jpg","width":1386,"height":2048,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-400x270.jpg","thumbnail_width":400,"thumbnail_height":270,"medium":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-305x450.jpg","medium_width":305,"medium_height":450,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-768x1135.jpg","medium_large_width":768,"medium_large_height":1135,"large":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-406x600.jpg","large_width":406,"large_height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-1040x1536.jpg","1536x1536_width":1040,"1536x1536_height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled.jpg","2048x2048_width":1386,"2048x2048_height":2048,"thumbnail_featured":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-770x450.jpg","thumbnail_featured_width":770,"thumbnail_featured_height":450,"thumbnail_sidebar":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-200x135.jpg","thumbnail_sidebar_width":200,"thumbnail_sidebar_height":135,"banner-block":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-440x440.jpg","banner-block_width":440,"banner-block_height":440,"small-banner":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-640x946.jpg","small-banner_width":640,"small-banner_height":946,"medium-banner":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-1024x1513.jpg","medium-banner_width":1024,"medium-banner_height":1513,"small-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-640x480.jpg","small-thumb_width":640,"small-thumb_height":480,"medium-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-320x240.jpg","medium-thumb_width":320,"medium-thumb_height":240,"large-thumb":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-420x315.jpg","large-thumb_width":420,"large-thumb_height":315,"slideshow-preview":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-300x200.jpg","slideshow-preview_width":300,"slideshow-preview_height":200,"slideshow":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/12\/Julian-Brazil-Devon-County-New-Councillors-May-25-261-1-scaled-800x533.jpg","slideshow_width":800,"slideshow_height":533}},"category_priority":10,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2027-12-18 18:02:32","action":"delete","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68147,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68146\/revisions\/68147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}