Council leader criticised over election silence

24 December 2025

Paul MoseleyNorfolk political reporter

News image — Norwich City Council's Labour leader has not offered any comment on an election delay

Paul Moseley/BBC Mike Stonard is wearing a high-vis jacket over a suit with a red tie. He has a white hard hat on his head and is standing beneath a glass canopy. — Norwich City Council's Labour leader has not offered any comment on an election delay

Opposition parties have criticised a council's leader for not saying if he wants local elections to take place next year.

The government has said authorities due to hold elections in May could postpone them, to give more time for a reorganisation of local councils.

Norwich City Council's Labour leader Mike Stonard has not responded to requests for comment, including from the BBC, on whether he wants voting to go ahead.

The Green Party has said putting off elections would be "unacceptable" whilst the Liberal Democrats said they also wanted them to take place.

Reform UK warned a delay would be "an attack on the social contract".

Paul Moseley/BBC Lucy Galvin looks directly at the camera, unsmiling. She has brown hair and is wearing a green top with dark cardigan. She is standing in a glass atrium. — The Green Party's Lucy Galvin called for answers on whether elections will go ahead in Norwich next year

Last week, ministers told council leaders they would consider postponing local polls until 2027 if they requested a delay.

The government said some authorities were concerned about their capacity to run them alongside local government reorganisation, as well as the cost to taxpayers of holding elections for councils that are due to be abolished.

In Norfolk, two councils are due to hold elections in 2026.

All 84 seats on the county council should be up for grabs, after this year's vote was already postponed.

Its Conservative leader Kay Mason Billig has said she still wants voting to take place.

However, in Norwich – where 13 of 39 seats are due to be contested – Stonard and Norwich City Council have remained silent, despite several requests for comment from the BBC.

"If Labour are planning to cancel elections without any kind of discussion or process, it's unacceptable," said Lucy Galvin, leader of the council's second largest group – the Greens.

She said she had repeatedly asked what Stonard's position was but "I still haven't had a response".

"Having a proper, transparent democratic process where people have agreed elections and stick to them is core to trust," she added.

Paul Moseley/BBC James Wright is wearing a brown suit jacket over a blue jumper and white t-shirt. He is standing outside the glass-fronted Forum building in Norwich. — The Liberal Democrats' James Wright said elections should take place

The Liberal Democrat group leader James Wright said he wanted voting to take place and that any decision regarding polls should not be solely made by an authority's leader.

"I would like to see this come before the council's scrutiny committee for cross-party input," he said.

Reform's Norwich chairman, Nick Taylor, said he believed Stonard would seek to delay elections "because it is very clear that they would lose considerable ground, not just to Reform UK, but to the Greens".

He said that would be an "attack on the social contract" which he warned was leading to disillusionment in politicians "because more and more people are disenfranchised, regardless of who is in power".

Council leaders have been told they have until 15 January to respond to the government.