Labour has announced that it has postponed the forthcoming local elections on the Isle of Wight as part of its wider, controversial devolution plans.
Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, confirmed the plan in the House of Commons this lunchtime (Wednesday).
The news means that tens of thousands of Islanders won’t get to vote for who they want to represent them on the Isle of Wight Council, as planned.
Instead, the left-leaning Alliance administration will maintain power at County Hall for a further 12 months, which also means another year of generous allowances for councillors…
It also seems likely that town, parish and community council elections will be pushed back.
The postponement means the next local elections will not be held until May 2026, a whole 5 years after the last time Islanders went to the polls to vote on local government.
Reform’s Nigel Farage says that ‘only dictators cancel elections’ and is calling on the country to sign a petition.
The party has said:
“Labour have colluded with the Conservatives to cancel 5.5m votes in the English County Council elections on May 1st.
“The right to vote is being taken away in Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and the Isle of Wight because Westminster is absolutely terrified of the rise of Reform.
“Only dictators cancel elections. Wherever you are in the UK, sign our petition to Let The People Vote”.
Having earned the votes of almost 13,000 Islanders in the General Election, not far short of 20% of all votes cast here, Reform’s focus is now very much on building on this firm foundation and winning as many Isle of Wight Council seats as possible.
Recruitment of prospective candidates for the next local election – now in May 2026 – is well underway, as previously reported by Island Echo, but today’s news means the party has an extra 12 months to allocate candidates for each and every seat.
It is likely that Islanders will also be voting for a new regional Mayor in May 2026 to head up a new strategic, combined authority.
This has only been done by Heir Starmers dictatorship to prevent Reform UK from winning every seat they will be going for. Absolute disgrace from a weak, scared and quite frankly the worst bunch of liars running the country we have EVER had.
And we had a lot of them lol
What happened to democracy!
More controlling us and corruption knowing they would be voted out. The whole lot stinks doesn’t it, so they stop us doing it.
Not this year as Angela Rayner has cancelled local elections for nine council areas the island being one of them,
Rigging it because they know they lose seats. Shameful
Just imagine a Football team knowing they will
lose to the better team, saying they don’t want to
play them in a match.
This shows us that we don’t have a say.
Get ready for the Council tax increase, they want our
money though.
No doubt they will try and postpone the next general election.
These marxists are eroding democracy.
They will do what their WEF Leaders tell them to do.
Running scared already eh!
Only been in power a few months and won’t face the public lol
What a shower of toilet waste
Anyone got the link to the petition?
It is my right to go to the polls in may this year. Wonder if there is a legal way this can be stopped.
I thought it was His Majesty’s Government!
I wonder what Charlie thinks!
What happened to our Sovereignty!
Keeps the pay cheques coming in for another year before they get voted out.
They will do the same next year, we live in a
Dictatorship, if we didn’t, why would they do this!
[…] ISLANDERS WON’T GO TO THE POLLS IN MAY AS LOCAL ELECTIONS PUSHED BACK […]
More a case of Labour running scared. We have a right to vote therefore this government have proved that they are a dictatorship and a Royal Decree is now needed to close this government down.
In my lifetime I have seen many Governments,
but this lot is the worse I have ever seen.
Tyrants comes to mind.
Dont pay your council tax otherwise this crooked government will run all over us, why should we pay extra taxes because they let in all these scrounging asylum seekers in, they want them then let the politicians pay for them.
The bunch of fools running the island will agree to anything to keep in power
They aren’t exactly of the utmost logics are they? OK, so they stop us voting because they don’t want us to vote them out? So those who MAY have voted for them to help keep them IN can’t vote either. Yeah!!
Bastards ..king hate this trash vile government.
There goes democracy. A complete and utter fiddle by Labour because they know they are going to be heavily hit by Reform.
Thank you comrades Starmer and Rayner!
More dictatorship and controlling of what we do with out lives. More corrupt removal of our rights to vote to protect their own arses. If we can’t vote to have who we want as our local council, why should we pay council tax for a council we don’t want