Independent election observers have flagged “concerningly high levels of family voting” in the Gorton and Denton by-election in Manchester.
Family voting is an illegal practice where two voters either confer, collude or direct each other on how to vote. It can involve husbands telling their wives how to vote. According to the report from Democracy Volunteers, family voting was observed in 68 per cent of polling stations, affecting 12 per cent of voters who were observed.
The by-election in the Greater Manchester area was won by the Green Party on Thursday night, marking their first-ever Westminster by-election win. Reform came in second place, with Labour pushed to third.
Hannah Spencer, who became the Green’s new MP in the area, ran a multi-lingual by-election campaign, targeted at winning the votes of Muslims in a constituency where, according to census data, some areas are 50 per cent Muslim.
Urdu-language Green Party leaflets urged people to vote for the party “for a strong voice for Muslims,” with candidate Spencer pictured wearing a keffiyeh beneath the message: “Stop Islamophobia. Stop Reform.”
This led some Labour figures to accuse the Greens of “whipping up hatred” among Muslim voters by “deliberately raising the salience of Gaza” in the area.
Further, a video produced by the Green Party in Urdu depicted Sir Keir Starmer shaking hands with Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, a deeply unpopular figure in Pakistan. The same video featured David Lammy during his time as foreign secretary shaking hands with Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister.
Muslims have celebrated the vote, with one Green Party campaigner writing on Instagram last night: “We were told this wasn’t possible. We were told only @uklabour could defeat @thereformpartyuk. They were wrong. They will keep being wrong. @muslim_greens were the key that unlocked the constituency, and our thousands of volunteers brought it home.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage has said that Thursday’s revelations of family voting “raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas”.
Taking to X, Mr Farage wrote: “Incidents of family voting in Gorton & Denton reached the highest levels of any election in the past 10 years, says @SkyNews.
“This is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas.”
He said on Friday that the election was “a victory for sectarian voting and cheating.”
The approach has received heavy criticism, with Conservative commentator Adam Brooks writing on X: “The desperation and lengths to which the Green Party will go to attract the Muslim vote in Gorton and Denton is truly remarkable,” posting a video of Hannah Spencer dancing with campaigners in the street.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reports on how democracy Volunteers said they attended 22 of the 45 polling stations in the constituency, spending 30 to 45 minutes in each. They witnessed family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations observed.
The group said they observed a sample of 545 individuals casting their votes and saw 32 cases of family voting in total, including nine cases in one polling station, the paper reports.
The success of the Greens in an area long held by Labour – the party hasn’t lost in the area since 1931 – has cast a light on the party’s policies, from drugs to immigration.
Last year, the leader of the Greens said that all drugs – including heroin and crack cocaine – should be legalised. The Daily Mail has reported on the party’s immigration policies, claiming it has seen documents drawn up by the Greens that suggest giving amnesty to illegal migrants.
It further reported that Zack Polanski plans to let illegal arrivals use the NHS from the moment they land in the UK as part of a “world without borders” – which would apply even if their asylum claim was rejected. Internal documents reported on by the newspaper read that “migration is not a criminal offence under any circumstances,” while detention centres for illegal migrants would also be abolished in the plans.
The Greens have also proposed to give them a wage on the level of benefits – but without the usual requirement to be in work or actively seek work. Reform, Labour and the Tories all hit out at the scheme as “financially reckless but also dangerous”.
FAMILY VOTING IN 68% OF POLLING STATIONS
Director of Democracy Volunteers, the group who conducted the research, John Ault, said in a statement: “Today we have seen concerningly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton. Based on our assessment of today’s observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK.
“We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent by-elections, is extremely high.
“In the other recent Westminster parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, we saw family voting in 12 per cent of polling stations, affecting 1 per cent of voters. In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68 per cent of polling stations, affecting 12 per cent of those voters observed.”
Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor of the exchequer, who last month defected from the Conservatives to Reform, said on Sky News that there had been “industrial-scale fraud” in Gorton and Denton.
A spokesman for the acting returning officer at the by-election told The Telegraph in a statement: “Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.”