Labour and the Tories have been accused of “running scared” of voters after local elections in nine councils areas were cancelled.

Voters had been expecting to go to the polls in May, but the ballots have been postponed for a year due to a shake-up of local government in England.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner defended the move in the House of Commons, saying: “We’re not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won’t exist.”

But Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said the two main parties were trying to dodge defeat at the ballot box.

He said: “This is a disgraceful stitch up between Labour and the Conservatives.

“The Liberal Democrats made sweeping gains against the Conservatives at the general election, and now failing Tory-run councils are running scared and denying voters a chance to kick them out of office in May.”

The nine councils affected are East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey.

In those areas, county and district councils will be merged to become “unitary” authorities as part of Labour’s plans to introduce more devolution to local areas.

Rayner insisted she had only approved half of the election delay requests the government had received from local councils.

“After careful consideration, I have only agreed to postpone elections in places where this is central to our manifesto promise to deliver devolution,” she said.

“We’re not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won’t exist and where we don’t know what will replace them.

“This would be an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money, and any party calling for these elections to go ahead must explain how this waste would be justifiable.”

But Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “I thought that only dictators cancelled elections but what I see today is collusion between the Labour and Conservative party’s to stave off the threat of Reform UK on May 1.

″Especially in a county like Essex, given that the reforms will take up to three years, there is no justification for this election cancellation.”