Something’s rotten about Labour win, rages Farage
‘Open to corruption’
NIGEL Farage has branded Peterborough a ‘rotten borough’ as police investigate whether electoral fraud helped Labour secure a narrow by-election victory.
The Brexit Party leader spoke out yesterday amid claims that voters were harassed and intimidated in the build-up to the vote in the marginal seat this month.
In one of the most keenly fought by- elections in recent years, Labour MP Lisa Forbes topped the poll ahead of the Brexit Party’s Mike Greene by only 683 votes.
Cambridgeshire police are investigating three allegations of postal vote fraud, one of bribery and corruption and another of breaching the privacy of the vote.
The Mail has already told how voters in the constituency – one of the most marginal in the country – had been pressured to apply for postal votes by Labour canvassers.
Residents expressed concern that those who successfully applied for the votes were then pressed, sometimes inappropriately, to commit their vote to the party in the presence of activists.
Among the allegations being investigated are social media claims that two men boasted of burning more than 1,000 votes for the Brexit Party.
Mr Farage said: ‘I think there is something inherently wrong with the entire postal voting process in this country.
‘I think it’s open to corruption, bribery intimidation, abuse. We’ve seen so many cases now where again and again we find – particularly in the inner cities – postal voting is producing the wrong results.
‘And I’m afraid Peterborough looks like another one of those rotten boroughs.’
The by- election in the Brexitsupporting constituency was triggered when disgraced former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya was dumped from the seat by voters after being jailed over a speeding offence.
Peterborough City Council has sought to dispel some of the wilder rumours which have arisen since the by-election, which have centred on the city’s particularly politically active Asian community. It said there was no evidence to back up claims of burka-clad women voting multiple times, or money being offered for votes.
But John Ault, director of the election observers Democracy Volunteers, likened some of the behaviour displayed by voters in Peterborough to that in Kazakhstan, the corruption-riddled former Soviet state.
Observers saw some voters taking pictures of completed ballot papers. Mr Ault told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I have observed many elections across Europe and only once in Kazakhstan many years ago did I see what I saw happen three times in Peterborough.
‘One can only speculate as to why some voters feel the need to do this, although this can, in some cases, point to a contract being fulfilled or an inducement having been given.’
Criticism of the Labour Party has been fuelled by the presence of convicted vote-rigger Tariq Mahmood during campaigning for the by-election and the local elections in May. The businessman, who runs a lettings agency, has been described by locals as a ‘kingpin’ at the heart of Labour operations in Peterborough.
Mahmood, then a local party branch secretary, was jailed in 2008 after being found at the heart of a plot during the local elections four years earlier to cultivate postal votes in Labour’s favour. After a £1 million police investigation, six men from both Labour and the Conservatives were convicted for their part in one of the UK’s worst electoral frauds.
Despite being kicked out of the party after his conviction, Mahmood is described by residents and political opponents as a central figure in Peterborough’s central ward.
The 51-year- old was pictured with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Mrs Forbes during byelection campaigning.
The businessman, nicknamed ‘Wormy’, was seen at the by-election vote count but dismissed accusations that his presence at a polling station was an attempt to exert pressure on voters, instead claiming that he had turned up for several minutes to accompany a relative.
The Labour Party said Mahmood attended the vote count as a member of the public.