This year’s local elections, including Sadiq Khan’s defence of London mayoralty, put back for a year
In a move that was probably inevitable Number 10 has announced this afternoon that the English local elections won’t be taking place in May and have been put back till next year.
The last time that elections had to be deferred was in 2001 when there was the Foot and Mouth outbreak. Then the deferral was for a month and included the 2001 general election that saw Tony Blair’s win with a second landslide and a turnout of less than 60% turnout.
The elections for seven English regional mayors and for English police and crime commissioner are also part of those being deferred.
The only one of these which had a significant betting market was the London race which has attracted much less coverage than normal because Khan looks a certainty.