This isn’t the first time that Farage has tried to undermine election results
The new Green MP for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, has criticised Nigel Farage for adopting Donald Trump-style tactics by claiming that the Greens won the by-election due to cheating and ‘family voting’.
Farage said without evidence that he was “absolutely convinced” that Reform’s candidate, the GB News presenter Matt Goodwin, came first among British-born voters.
He also made a jibe at Green voters, saying: “I’m not sure anyone who votes Green works.”
Following Reform’s defeat in the by-election, Farage pledged to ban postal voting and strip citizens from Commonwealth countries of their right to vote.
Reform also reported allegations of “family voting” raised by election monitoring group Democracy Volunteers to the police.
Responding to Farage’s comments, Spencer, who was sworn in as an MP yesterday, told the Guardian: “Everyone’s vote is equal. Farage today is talking racist nonsense and is trying to sound like his hero Donald Trump who also tried to deny the results of an election he lost.”
“Farage doesn’t even know who voted for Reform, it’s a secret ballot and he spent hardly any time in the constituency.
“Farage has insulted the people of my constituency by saying people who voted Green don’t work. We won by appealing to everyone, including Reform voters, and his party were shown the door.”
Georgie Laming, director of campaigns at the anti-extremism campaign group Hope Not Hate, said that Farage had a “track record of seeking to undermine elections and the wider democratic process”.
Laming pointed out that “Like his close ally Donald Trump, Farage has regularly disputed election defeats, including in Oldham in 2015, Peterborough in 2019 and Rochdale in 2024.”
While Farage said he thinks Goodwin came first among British-born voters, Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, said polling suggested Reform and the Greens each won roughly a third of the white British vote.
He added that Reform had limited support among under-40s, students, graduates, renters, and British-born minority voters.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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