Millions more people face having their local elections delayed until 2027 in a move that is likely to provoke a backlash from Nigel Farage.
Ministers will ask more than 60 councils whether they want to suspend elections in their areas as part of plans to reorganise local government.
This year the government announced that it was postponing local elections in the Tory-controlled Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hampshire and West Sussex until 2026, affecting up to five million people.
These areas will be asked whether they wish to postpone again until 2027. All district councils in other areas affected by local government reform would also have elections delayed if they want it.
Most are expected to take advantage of the government’s offer in the hope that an additional year will start to see Reform’s lead in the polls slip and give them a greater chance of holding on to power.
Farage said he would look at drawing up plans for a legal challenge to prevent the delays in the areas, which polls suggested his Reform UK party had been on course to win. Reform UK has said it is a “blatant attempt to stop big Reform wins”.
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Labour plans to abolish the two-tier system of county and district councils, instead creating several larger councils covered by a directly elected mayor with extra devolved powers.
Steve Reed, the local government secretary, had previously ruled out in the House of Commons any delay to the county council elections in May.
However, he is thought to have listened to concerns from councils over the past week on their ability to implement the reorganisation of local government without the delays.
The decisions would come on top of the move to postpone inaugural mayoral elections in the same areas from 2026 to 2028.
The Times revealed in October that Conservative leaders of county councils were “lobbying hard” for the government to move their elections another year forward to 2027.
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Those elections would be held for the new larger councils that will be introduced in 2028. Since the Conservative councillors were elected in 2021, this would mean serving seven-year terms instead of the usual five.
Any move to delay elections again will prompt anger from Reform and the Liberal Democrats, who have accused Labour of denying democracy.
There is increasing scepticism among Labour MPs that the government will have capacity to oversee a wholesale reorganisation involving the abolition of all 164 district councils in England as is planned at present. Some also object to the wider introduction of mayors, seeing them as opportunities for Reform to block Labour’s plans for the country.