LABOUR is postponing a slate of next year’s mayoral elections until 2028, The Sun can reveal.
Four new combined authorities – Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Sussex and Brighton, and Norfolk and Suffolk – will have their polls pushed back two years.
Ministers are expected to make the announcement on Thursday on the grounds the councils need more time to complete their reorganisation.
But the decision will likely spark claims that Labour is delaying elections for political purposes.
They were due to take place next May alongside other council elections.
Nigel Farage is already fuming that a series of council elections have been postponed in areas that Reform is targeting.
The new combined authorities have been established under a devolution shake-up that merges several councils into one.
Ministers are set to use the announcement to pledge £200million every year for three decades for six new devolved mayors.
Mayors will be allowed to use this pot on the local economy and also accelerating house building.
The Government will also set out the funding settlement for the new mayoralties.
