The plans have been described as Trumpian…
Nigel Farage has been accused of trying to “rig the rules” in elections by stripping Commonwealth citizens of their voting rights and restricting postal voting.
Yesterday, the Reform UK leader said he would only allow naturalised British citizens to vote in Parliamentary elections. This means residents from Commonwealth countries such as Pakistan and India would lose their right to vote.
Farage also vowed to end postal voting for all except elderly and disabled people, serving armed forces personnel, and those working overseas during an election.
He said he would restrict voting rules after claiming that Muslim voters had ‘cheated’ to elect the Green Party’s candidate Hannah Spencer in the Gorton and Denton by-election last Thursday.
Farage seized on reports from election monitoring group Democracy Volunteers, which said it had observed instances of “family voting” during the by-election.
The Clacton MP claimed that ‘cheating’ had cost Reform the election.
Family voting is where two voters use one polling booth at the same time, and can involve husbands telling their wives how to vote.
Democracy Volunteers raised the issue after the polls closed, and appear not to have reported the allegations to the police.
On Friday, Reform reported cases of family voting to the electoral commission and the police.
Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, told The Mirror: “Nigel Farage is a sore loser. His baseless conspiracy theories make him sound more like Donald Trump every day. Instead of trying to rig the rules – restricting who can vote or banning postal ballots – he should look closer to home.”
“People in Gorton and Denton turned out to reject Reform’s nasty and divisive agenda. An agenda that would scrap employment protections, legalise discrimination and axe renters’ rights – handing more power to bad bosses and rogue landlords.”
Unison’s assistant general secretary, Jon Richards, said: “If Nigel Farage was such a fan of democracy, he’d have insisted on a by-election every time another chancer Tory MP defected to Reform. It’s funny how he has far less interest in overseas influence when it comes to the funding of his party.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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