Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has reported allegations of family voting at the Gorton and Denton by-election to the Electoral Commission and Greater Manchester Police.
Family voting is when a family member attempts to influence someone else’s vote. It is usually recorded when members of one family enter a polling booth together.
The accusations follow a historic win by Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer, who overturned a 13,000 Labour majority in the constituency.
Spencer triumphed over Matthew Goodwin, the candidate from Reform UK, by nearly 4,000 votes, receiving 41% of all votes cast.
Concerns were originally raised by a group of voluntary election observers, Democracy Volunteers, who check that voting processes are being followed correctly during elections.
Director John Ault issued a statement once polls had closed at 10pm on Thursday 26 February, claiming that observers had seen “the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history”.
However, the local council have rejected these claims, stating that no polling station staff had made reports of family voting on election day.
Democracy Volunteers have since hit back, claiming that raising concerns earlier would have violated international best practice of not interfering with the electoral process.
The Ballot Secrecy Act 2023 made it a criminal offence to be in or near a polling booth with another person in order to influence them to vote in any particular way, effectively outlawing family voting.
On Friday 27 March, the day after the election, Farage confirmed that Reform had reported “many cases” of family voting, calling the matter “deeply concerning”.
He claimed that it raises “serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas”, using the accusations to question the “validity” of the election result.
Matt Goodwin similarly blamed the Green victory on a “coalition of Islamists and woke progressives”.
Gorton and Denton is known to be an demographically divided constituency. The three wards that make up the Tameside part of the seat are on average 83% white, while the three wards making up the Manchester part are on average 42% white and 40% Muslim.
The Green Party’s apparent success at winning Muslim votes in these areas has been the cause for such claims, with both Labour and Reform UK accusing the Greens of sectarian politics.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote to Labour MPs on Friday 27 March, to claim that “their divisive sectarian politics is a sign that the Greens are not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be”, while Farage posted on X that the win was a “victory for sectarian voting and cheating”.
Wajid Akhter, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, publicly condemned this rhetoric from what he called “a desperate political class not willing to give ordinary British voters the dignity they deserve”.
The Electoral Commission say that they are taking the claims “very seriously”, and that they would “carefully consider” the report made by Farage. Greater Manchester Police also confirmed that a review and update would be given in due course.
Meanwhile, the Green Party have hit back at Reform’s criticisms. A comment from a spokesperson read: “This is an attempt to undermine the democratic result and is straight out of the Trump playbook. We’ve just won a historic by-election by a comfortable margin. We’ve shown the country that Greens can beat Reform”.
While the findings of the investigation await confirmation, local plumber Hannah Spencer has become the Green Party’s fifth MP.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski told BBC Breakfast that their success in the seat shows that “there’s no no-go areas for the Green Party”, adding, “I think if we can do this here, we can do this pretty much anywhere”.
