No 10 to delay four England mayoral elections amid accusations of ‘cancelling democracy’
Ministers are to postpone elections for new mayors in four parts of England, prompting accusations from opposition parties that Downing Street is “cancelling democracy”.Newly created mayoralties in Greater Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, Hampshire and the Solent, and Sussex and Brighton will be first contested in 2028 under the plans, ministers confirmed on Thursday.The government argued that the areas needed more time to complete their local government reorganisation, but faced criticism from opposition parties and the former Labour local government minister.Jim McMahon, who was removed as a minister in September, said his party needed “to be better than this” and had “a moral and a legal obligation to honour its side of the bargain”.Criticising the postponement in the Commons, he said: “All involved had a reasonable expectation that these elections would go ahead, and the government knows that trust is hard won but is easily squandered.
”The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK all called the move, first reported by the Sun, an affront to democracy.Defending it in the Commons, Miatta Fahnbulleh, the local government minister, said the delay would allow the strategic combined authorities to be properly set up before mayors were in post.“The government is minded to hold these inaugural mayoral elections for Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Greater Essex in May 2028, so these areas have the opportunity to conclude their local government reorganisation and build strong, effective unitaries, which is what we want to see, and to establish their strategic authority before the mayor takes post,” she told MPs.The government announced £200m in funding for six regions across England, of which four are having their elections postponed.Greater Essex will receive £41.
5m, Hampshire and the Solent £44.6m, Norfolk and Suffolk £37.4m, and Sussex and Brighton, £38m.Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, called the decision “a scandal” and said the government’s reasoning “doesn’t wash”.“They’ve had plenty of time to do this,” she told broadcasters during a visit to a west London school.
“What we’re seeing is a Labour government that wasn’t actually ready for government, and they’ve come in and they’re making up their plans as they go along.”Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, said: “Generally it’s dictators that cancel elections.Some 7.5 million people are now going to be denied the opportunity of voting in mayoral elections.“Funny isn’t it: we’ve just announced our mayoral candidates for all of these areas and all of a sudden the government, terrified of losing to Reform, are cancelling them,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Sign up to Headlines UKGet the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morningafter newsletter promotion“To delay it two years: that is a deliberate dictatorial cancelling of democracy in the United Kingdom and we shouldn’t tolerate it,”The Liberal Democrats’ local government spokesperson, Zöe Franklin, said the delay was “a disgrace” and that “democracy delayed is democracy denied”,Defending the decision to broadcasters, the children’s minister Josh MacAlister said: “The people who are saying this are the same people who a few years ago were proroguing parliament,We’ll take no lectures from these people about democracy, protecting it, freedom of speech and all the rest of it,”He added: “There are elections taking place next year – local authorities where they’re still in two tiers and haven’t reorganised that basic foundation of being a unitary council – it would be a rush to push for that now rather than get it right.
But we’re not delaying the money that goes into those communities.”The new mayoralties were announced under devolution reforms in February, which promised “sweeping” powers for local authorities to fast-track growth.Elections in nine council areas – East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey – were already postponed from this year to 2026 amid the reorganisation of local government in England.Reform UK enjoyed success in the local elections last May, winning more than 600 seats and taking control of 10 councils, including Kent and County Durham.The party also toppled a 14,000-strong Labour majority in a parliamentary byelection.
‘I don’t take no for an answer’: how a small group of women changed the law on deepfake porn
For Jodie*, watching the conviction of her best friend, and knowing she helped secure it, felt at first like a kind of victory. It was certainly more than most survivors of deepfake image-based abuse could expect.They had met as students and bonded over their shared love of music. In the years since graduation, he’d also become her support system, the friend she reached for each time she learned that her images and personal details had been posted online without her consent. Jodie’s pictures, along with her real name and correct bio, were used on many platforms for fake dating profiles, then adverts for sex work, then posted on to Reddit and other online forums with invitations to deepfake them into pornography
Pornography company fined £1m by Ofcom for not having strong enough age checks
A pornography company that runs 18 adult websites has been fined £1m by the watchdog Ofcom for not having strong enough age checks, in the largest fine yet under the UK’s Online Safety Act.The Belize-based AVS Group has been hit with the punishment, plus a further £50,000 for failing to respond to information requests.It is the third time that the internet and communications watchdog has fined a company in relation to the Online Safety Act, which brought into force strict age-checking requirements in July.While AVS has implemented what it claims is an age verification regime, the regulator’s investigation did not deem it to be highly effective.The company now has 72 hours to introduce age checks that Ofcom will view as effective or face a penalty of £1,000 a day
Probation officers in England and Wales to be given self-defence training after stabbings
Probation officers will be given self-defence training, bleed kits and body-worn cameras for the first time under plans before ministers in the wake of two stabbings, the Guardian has learned.Knife arches and handheld metal-detecting wands, which can be used to search people for weapons, have been approved for pilot schemes in selected offices.The disclosures come days after a staff member was stabbed in a probation office in Oxford. Separately, a man has admitted the attempted murder in July of a female officer in another probation centre in Preston, Lancashire.The probation officers’ union, which believes these are the first knife attacks in probation offices, has said members have a “palpable fear” about going to work since the attacks
Leasehold ‘wild west’ under scrutiny as minister criticises FirstPort’s fees and failures
A senior minister has said he has “significant concerns” about one of Britain’s biggest property managers after dozens of residents complained of high charges, slow repairs and aggressive debt collection techniques.It is the latest sign of growing anger in Westminster over the behaviour of FirstPort, which manages properties on behalf of 1 million people, and other leasehold management companies.Pennycook has previously called the unregulated leasehold market a “wild west” of operators and is planning to publish a draft bill in the coming weeks that would all but end the leasehold system.Matthew Pennycook recently met Martin King, the managing director of FirstPort, to raise his concerns. The minister made clear in a subsequent letter he had been unconvinced by some of the company’s responses
Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has ordered a clinical review of the diagnosis of mental health conditions, according to reports. Streeting is understood to be concerned about a sharp rise in the number of people making sickness benefits claims because of diagnoses for mental illness, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the Times reported. He has asked leading experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become “over-pathologised”, the newspaper said, as he seeks to grapple with the 4.4 million working-age people now claiming sickness or incapacity benefit. The figure has risen by 1
Discussing breast density after mammograms may cause unneeded anxiety, study finds
Telling women whether they have dense breasts as part of their breast cancer screening results may leave them feeling unnecessarily anxious and confused, according to a study.Breast density refers to the level of glandular and fibrous tissue relative to fat in breasts. Dense breast tissue is a risk factor for breast cancer, and can also make mammograms more difficult to read.Those undergoing breast screening in Australia are already told of their breast density, and the measure is being considered in the UK by the National Screening Committee (NSC).The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Sydney and published in the BMJ, looked at data from 2,401 women who had been screened for breast cancer in Australia between September 2023 and July 2024 who were classified as having dense breasts
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