In recent years the Tories have tried to change the electoral system in their favour, by introducing reforms such as voter ID laws
One Tory MP is so incensed at the scale of defeat suffered by his party in last week’s local elections, that he has called for postal votes to be banned.
Brendan Clarke-Smith, Tory MP for Bassetlaw, posted on X yesterday: “Postal voting – it’s time to scrap it.” He was quoted in the Telegraph expressing concerns ‘relating to the abuse of postal votes and the potential for fraud’.
In recent years the Tories have tried to change the electoral system in their favour, by introducing reforms such as voter ID laws and also changing electoral boundaries.
Clarke’s call for a ban on postal votes also comes after a series of false far-right conspiracy theories were spread on social media, suggesting that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan had somehow won re-election through harvesting postal votes.
The Tory MP’s call to ban postal votes could backfire, as was the case with voter ID when Jacob Rees-Mogg conceded that it had backfired on his own party, admitting that it had “made it hard for our own voters” to take part in England’s local elections last year.
Adam Bienkov of Byline Times highlighting how an ‘Oxford University study from last year found that supporters of left-leaning candidates are the least likely to vote by post’.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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