NONE OF THE ABOVE!

Tens of thousands deliver withering verdict with spoilt ballot papers

TENS of thousands of voters spoiled their ballot papers in protest against the Tories and Labour for failing to deliver Brexit.

Some areas reported a more than sixfold increase in the number of spoilt ballots as voters scrawled messages of anger that Britain had not left the EU.

In 72 of the 2 8 English council contests analysed by the Mail there were at least 39,186 spoilt ballots. A number of voters shared images on social media of voting

slips with messages including ‘Get May out’, ‘Brexit betrayal’ and ‘Traitors’ written across them. In many Leave-voting areas, voters complained none of the parties represented them.

Hertsmere district council, in Hertfordshire had a staggering 6,08 spoilt ballots. Basildon borough council saw the number of rejected voting papers more than double to 796, compared to 376 in the 201 local elections. And in Great Yarmouth, where Tory chairman Brandon Lewis is the MP, 968 ballots were rejected in the borough council election – more than 2.6 per cent of the votes cast. This was up from just 0. per cent in the local elections four years ago.

One Twitter user in Winchester with the name ‘DTWLes’ posted a picture of their ballot paper, on which they had written: ‘I cannot vote for any of these parties. All have blocked the biggest vote in UK democracy. Brexit must be delivered for the UK people.’

Another user wrote: ‘Never spoiled a ballot paper in the past and I’ve always voted Tory. The next time I vote it will be for the Brexit Party.’

There were also protests from Remain supporters, writing ‘Stop Brexit’.