Head of elections watchdog quits in anti-Brexit bias row
Fury at anti-Brexit bias of ‘impartial’ election chiefs ‘New brooms are needed’
THE head of the Electoral Commission has quit following a series of claims that she has been biased against Brexit. Claire Bassett has resigned as chief executive of the elections watchdog, while three commissioners who publicly opposed leaving the European Union will also go.
The commission has faced accusations of unfairness from Brexiteers, who claim it has focused on allegations of wrongdoing by the Leave side. But allies of Miss Bassett, who is joining the newly established UK Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), insist her move is unrelated to criticism of the commission.
Bridget Prentice, Lord Horam and Professor David Howarth, who sit on the watchdog’s board, are all stepping down this month at the end of their four-year terms.
The trio stirred controversy after it emerged that they had all voiced opposition to Brexit while in their posts.
Professor Howarth, a former Lib Dem MP, suggested the 2016 result could not ‘bind the young’, as ‘Leave’s majority will have been reversed merely by the process of Leave voters dying and new Remain voters reaching the age of 18’.
Former Labour MP Miss Daily Mail, April 2 Prentice said Tony Blair’s suggestion the referendum result could be overturned was ‘spot on’. And Lord Horam has said in the Lords there would be ‘great logic’ in holding a second referendum.
A Whitehall source said: ‘Trust and confidence in the Electoral Commission has been undermined in recent years. New brooms are needed to get it to do its core job competently and efficiently.’
In May, the elections watchdog was rebuked by ministers for setting aside £829,000 to spend on European Parliament elections next year.
Chloe Smith, the constitution minister, questioned why a budget had been allocated despite the Government making clear the UK will not take part – given that the country will leave the EU in March.
The commission said it had ringfenced the sum as a ‘precautionary measure, so that we have the necessary funds to deliver our functions at a European Parliamentary election, in the unlikely event that they do go ahead’.
But in a letter to Sir John Holmes, the body’s chairman, Miss Smith said: ‘The Government has been clear that there will be no European elections next year.’
In September the High Court ruled that the commission had misinterpreted election law in the run-up to the Brexit vote. Vote Leave, the lead organisation in the campaign to quit the EU, donated £625,000 to Be-Leave, another pro-Brexit group aimed at the youth vote.
During the referendum the commission advised that such donations were permissible but later changed its mind, fining Vote Leave and referring the episode to the police. Miss Bassett will be chief at the TRA, which will take on powers from the EU to investigate unfair trade practices. In a statement announcing her departure, Miss Bassett said yesterday: ‘I am extremely proud of the work the Electoral Commission has done over the last three years.
‘We have made important steps towards being a modern regulator and this has only been possible because of the skills and hard work of the team I have been privileged to lead.’
The three vacated spaces on the Electoral Commission board will be filled by Tory peer Lord Gilbert, former Labour MP Joan Walley and Alastair Ross, an ex-DUP minister in the Northern Ireland Executive.