Nigel Farage condemns ‘cheating’ in Gorton & Denton by-election after independent observers flag ‘high levels’ of illegal ‘family voting’ – where people are escorted to polling booths

Nigel Farage today hit out at ‘rigging’ in the Gorton and Denton byelections after independent observers raised the alarm about a ‘high level’ of illegal ‘family voting’.

Reform has warned of ‘dangerous Muslim sectarianism’ after Volunteers for Democracy raised fears about breaches of electoral law.

The organisation’s observers raised concerns about a ‘family vote’ in the Greater Manchester seat on Thursday. well Accompanying a voter by another person in or near a polling station for the purpose of influencing their vote.

A tougher law known as the Ballot Secrecy Act was passed in 2023 to restrict the practice. This made it clear that this was a crime.

Democracy Volunteers said in a statement as polls closed in Gorton and Denton on Thursday night that they had seen ‘the highest level of family votes in any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK’.

But Manchester City Council insisted ‘no such issue was reported’.

Labor won Gorton and Denton by more than half the vote in the 2024 general election, but Thursday’s by-election turned into a three-way race between Reform England and the Greens.

The seat is sharply divided by ethnicity, religion and deprivation, with areas in the West having significant Muslim populations.

Mr Farage said the report of high levels of family voting ‘raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in Muslim-majority areas’.

“This election was a victory for sectarian voting and fraud,” he posted on X.

Reform England leader Nigel Farage claims Gorton and Denton by-election is ‘a victory for sectarian voting and fraud’

Matthew Goodwin, the Reform candidate in the by-election, said: ‘Given the reports we have read in the UK media about family voting and sectarianism, I am deeply concerned about the extent to which the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election is a free, fair and democratic election.’

Labor leader Anna Turley told BBC Newsnight that reports about family voting were ‘extremely worrying and worrying’.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: ‘I think it’s important that there is full transparency about the democratic process.

‘And if the recommendation is for an investigation or further action then yes I would support that.’

The organization said four accredited election observers from Volunteers for Democracy saw families voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations they attended.

This was a total of 32 cases, with nine cases observed at just one polling station.

This meant that 12 percent of voters observed that family voting was due to or influenced by their vote.

Democracy Volunteers Director John Ault said: ‘We saw alarmingly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton today.

‘Our assessment, based on our observations today, is that we have seen the highest level of family voting in any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK.’

‘We rarely report on election night, but the data we collected on family votes today is extremely high compared to other recent midterm elections.

‘In the recent Westminster parliamentary by-elections in Runcorn and Helsby we found that family voting affected 1 per cent of voters in 12 per cent of polling stations.

‘In Gorton and Denton, we observed families voting at 68 percent of polling stations, affecting 12 percent of the voters observed.’

The organization said its teams attended 22 of the 45 polling stations in the constituency, spending 30 to 45 minutes at each and observing a sample of 545 voters casting ballots.

The team also observed cases where voters were turned away; but in all cases this was because they were not registered voters for Westminster elections, i.e. they did not have EU citizenship, and were only allowed to vote in local elections.

Democracy Volunteers also saw some voters taking photos of their ballots and one voter being cleared to vote even though he had been marked as voted earlier in the day.

They informed electoral officers at Manchester City Council of their findings, but the local authority said ‘no such issue’ had been reported.

A spokesman for the returning officer said: ‘Polling station staff are trained to investigate any evidence of improper influence on voters. No such problem has been reported today.

‘If the Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about the alleged issues they could and should have raised them with us during voting hours so that immediate action could be taken.

‘We operated a central by-election center that responded quickly to problems reported during the day, in liaison with the police who were present at each polling station when necessary.

‘It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers waited until the polls closed to make such claims.’