Nigel Farage’s party announces dramatic changes to elections
Nigel Farage voting in Clacton earlier in August (Image: Getty)
A Reform government would ban people from voting if they do not speak English. Nigel Farage’s party has unveiled a series of radical proposals to change the electoral system, which also include removing the right to vote from citizens of Commonwealth countries.
Any citizen of a Commonwealth nation, such as Canada, Australia, India or Pakistan, currently has the right to vote in local and parliamentary elections, as long as they are living in the UK. Reform’s proposed laws would also make it illegal to publish election campaign material in any foreign language. And it would prevent postal voting unless a voter was a member of the armed forces or unable to go to a polling station. Currently, anyone can apply for a postal vote.
Danny Kruger, the party’s head of government preparations, said it followed concerns that “foreign conflicts and sectarian interests” were playing a role in UK elections. He said: “With every election, our democracy is being systematically eroded. Britain’s electoral system, once the envy of the world, now buckles under the strain of uncontrolled immigration.”
“Reform UK will not stand by while our political system is undermined. Britain should be run in the interests of the British people. That’s why we are introducing these changes to save our democracy.”
The party will try to introduce amendments to Labour’s Representation of the People Bill, to be debated by MPs next week, which will lower the voting age to 16. These are not expected to be approved by Parliament, but Reform then plans to introduce its own Election Integrity Bill if it wins the next general election.
The English language test would be overseen by presiding officers who manage polling stations on election day. Reform’s proposed laws, which would apply in England and Wales, state that officials “may speak to any voter to determine, in general terms, the voter’s ability to understand the voting process and the English or Welsh language”.
The plans add: “If the presiding officer or representative has concerns over the voter’s ability to understand … the presiding officer shall place the ballot paper aside, mark it as belonging to the voter, and it shall not be counted.”
Voters would have a right to appeal.
It would also become an offence to produce election material in a language not “native to the British Isles”.
Reform also plans to stop what is known as “family voting”, when one person influences somebody else’s vote, by giving officials the power to demand that people who arrive at polling stations together only enter one at a time. It follows claims that voters were seen entering polling booths together during the Gorton and Denton by-election in February.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “This is yet another desperate attempt by Reform to deflect attention from the scandals Nigel Farage and his top team are drowning in. It’s time he came clean with the public over his secret £5 million “gift” and rid his Party of the enormous amount of sleaze and scandals that have come to light.
“The integrity of our democratic system is something Labour will always protect. That’s why we’re taking tough action to safeguard our democracy through the Representation of the People Bill. Meanwhile Reform wants to stop people voting if they go on holiday, despite Nigel Farage having voted by post himself. As ever, it’s one rule for him and another for everyone else.”