Reform ordered to pay Electoral Commission fine over imprint rule breaches

The Electoral Commission handed Reform a fine after it failed to put imprints on some of its campaign materials.

The election watchdog found that Reform had failed to put digital imprints on its social media accounts and ran an advert in The Telegraph which did not have an imprint either. 

An imprint is information on a piece of campaign material that tells voters who has produced it.

Reform was ordered to pay a fine of £1,750, but the party failed to pay it by the deadline, and subsequently had to pay £2187.50. 

The investigation found that three social media accounts run by the Reform UK party on X, Instagram and LinkedIn, did not have digital imprints. The Electoral Commission said imprints were missing between at least November 2025 and January 2026.

The Reform UK party also published an advertisement in The Telegraph newspaper in February 2026 without an imprint.

Reform has now paid the fine. The Electoral Commission declined to comment on why Reform did not pay the fine by the deadline.

Reform has been contacted for comment. 

This comes after Matt Goodwin, Reform’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, acknowledged that one of his election leaflets had failed to include a “statutory imprint”.

Reform sent out a letter designed to look as if it was handwritten by a “concerned pensioner” called Patricia Clegg, who said she no longer wanted to vote Labour, but who was in fact writing on behalf of Reform, The Mill reported. 

The letter did not identify that the letter was Reform campaign material, which is a breach of electoral law.

The case went to the High Court in February, where Reform’s lawyers said it was an “honest administrative error” caused by the printing firm missing off Reform’s imprint. 

The judge on the case, Mr Justice Butcher, said he was “satisfied” Goodwin and his election agent should not be sanctioned and that they had taken “appropriate steps to put it right”.

In the run-up to the Caerphilly by-election last October, Reform sent another faux handwritten letter from an “elderly” neighbour called Andrew Russell who claimed to be a “lifelong Labour voter”.

Again, Russell said he would not be voting Labour in the Caerphilly by-election. This letter did include small print at the end of the letter indicating that it was printed in England as election material for Reform UK.

However, locals said that the letter was “deceptive” as they didn’t know who Russell was. 

Before the 2024 general election, Reform also circulated a leaflet in Wirral West which was also missing the required imprint identifying who had printed and promoted the material.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward