No elections will take place across Greater Manchester in 2025, as the ten boroughs that comprise the city-region enter a scheduled fallow year between polls.

The metropolitan district councils of Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Tameside, Trafford, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Wigan last held elections in May 2024, when voters also chose Andy Burnham for a third term as Greater Manchester mayor. With Burnham secured in post until 2028, the next council contests are not due until May 2026, when one third of seats in each authority will be contested.

Despite this routine electoral timetable, social media posts have falsely claimed the government has scrapped 2025 polls in Greater Manchester because it fears opposition parties. These rumours appear to have merged with separate controversy over potential delays to shire council elections elsewhere in England, where Local Government Minister Jim McMahon has asked 21 county authorities to commit to devolution deals by 10 January if they wish to postpone their scheduled 1 May contests.

Reform Party leader Nigel Farage has accused Labour of “running scared” amid talk of cancelled elections, telling supporters that shelving polls where Reform is gaining support is “the act of a desperate government”. McMahon insists any delays would be temporary and designed to allow councils to reorganise and “give local people a voice”.

For Greater Manchester voters, the only circumstance in which a ballot will be held in 2025 is if a by-election is triggered by the resignation, death or disqualification of an existing councillor.

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