Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he does not “trust” the voting system and has called for changes to who can vote in general elections as well as who can apply for a postal vote.
Farage said Commonwealth citizens should no longer be able to vote in general elections and that postal votes should only be granted to those with a “good reason” such as being elderly, working abroad or being on holiday on the day of the election.
Speaking at a press conference in London, he argued that postal voting was “massively open to fraud and intimidation” and that it should only account for 1-2% of the overall vote.
At the last general election more than a quarter of votes were cast by post.
Currently someone can apply for a postal vote if it would be more convenient than visiting the polling station on the day of the election.
In order to vote in an election to the UK Parliament, a person must either be a British citizen, qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of the Republic Of Ireland.
A qualifying Commonwealth citizen is defined as someone who has leave to enter or remain in the UK or who doesn’t require that leave.
Farage said Irish citizens would still be allowed to take part in UK general elections under Reform’s proposals but that he wanted to scrap the right for Commonwealth citizens.
He said: “Commonwealth voting was never really a problem until the age of mass immigration.
“It has now been impacting on our elections for a very, very long time.
“I do believe for national elections they should be voted in by British voters only… otherwise we get a really very, very perverse influence on our politics.”
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph and Mail on Sunday, Farage said postal voting had turned elections into a “laughing stock”.
Farage’s call for change to voting rules comes days after concerns were raised at the Gorton and Denton by-election about so-called family voting, which is where a family member is seen to be influencing somebody else’s vote, for example by entering the polling booth with them.
After polls closed in the Greater Manchester by-election on Thursday, Democracy Volunteers, a group of voluntary election observers, issued a statement in which it said it had seen “the highest level of family voting at any election” in its 10 year history of observing elections in the UK.
It said it had observed family voting at 68% of polling stations in the constituency, compared to 12% at a recent by-election in Runcorn and Helsby.
In its report from 2022,, external Democracy Volunteers said that it had observed family voting in 25% of all polling stations in the UK – 21% in England, 42% in Northern Ireland, 19% in Scotland and 34% in Wales.
A United Nations Development Programme report from 2016 said family voting is “commonly practised in jurisdictions that have a tradition of an extended and/or customary family structures that allow the dominant member of the family to take important decisions”.
It added that family voting “often stops women from casting a vote of their own choice. In many situations, while the woman physically casts her own vote, she is under a strong cultural expectation to obey her husband or father and vote for the candidate or party that she has been instructed to vote for.”
A spokesperson for the official running the Gorton and Denton by-election said “no such issues” had been reported by polling station staff and added that Democracy Volunteers should have raised any concerns during polling hours.
Both Reform UK and the Conservatives have asked the Electoral Commission to investigate.
Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said the reports of family voting were “extremely worrying and concerning”.
The Electoral Commission said it took the claims “very seriously” and would “carefully consider” the report.
On Monday, MPs are due to debate the Representation of the People Bill, a piece of legislation which the government says will make the postal voting system “more resilient and responsive”.
The bill would make it easier to reissue postal votes and to allow voters to switch voting methods in certain circumstances, for example where their postal vote has not arrived.
The Conservatives are urging MPs to vote down the bill arguing that it “opens the door to electoral fraud”.
The Conservative shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly said the provisions in the bill should be paused until a review of foreign interference in British politics has been completed.
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