Nigel Farage has been accused of “playing with fire” after he criticised police who found no evidence of electoral fraud in last month’s by-election in Gorton & Denton.
Officers had been investigating claims of so-called ‘family voting’, in which two or more voters confer, collude or direct each other on voting. The election observation group Democracy Volunteers said their accredited staff had witnessed family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations they attended on the day, totalling 32 instances.
Reform UK were beaten into second place by the Green Party by more than 4,000 votes but Farage has claimed it was "a victory for sectarian voting and cheating". Reform referred the matter to Greater Manchester Police.
A lengthy statement issued by GMP on Friday afternoon said they had found “no evidence of any intent to influence or refrain any person from voting”.
They added: “The [Democracy Volunteers] observers do not allege any verbal instruction or physical conduct that indicated one person was directing or coercing another regarding how to vote. This is a crucial part of the legislation to prove such an offence was committed.”
Farage branded the findings an “establishment whitewash”, claiming that authorities had “shrugged their shoulders and looked the other way for fear of being called racist”. Criticising postal voting and the voting rights of Commonwealth citizens, he added that the UK’s electoral system was “rife with corruption, intimidation, bribery and abuse on a quite epic scale”.
Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, told The Observer that any concerns about electoral integrity should be based on “proportionality and evidence”. Instead, Farage was “playing with fire” and risked undermining the democratic principle of “losers’ consent”, which ensures the peaceful transition of power after an election.
“I really do worry about the implications of a party leader being willing to undermine the legitimacy of election results if they don't go their way… It is troubling that they do this when the sun is shining on them electorally. What does this imply if they underperform in a general election?”
Sunder Katwala, director of the thinktank British Future, agreed: “Farage’s party now has a decade-long record of shouting loudly about fraud without bringing cases. Whenever there are British Asian people in the constituency - whether it’s Rochdale, Peterborough or Gorton - he pops up with claims about electoral integrity.”
A Green Party spokesperson said: “It's such a pity that Nigel Farage is such a sore loser. He sounds more Trumpian every day.”
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Reform did not respond to requests for comment.
Photograph by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images