Fury at anti-Brexit bias of ‘impartial’ election chiefs
SENIOR Electoral Commission members face calls to resign after voicing opposition to Brexit.
The watchdog’s chairman and three of his commissioners are under scrutiny over a series of comments criticising the Brexit campaign – even suggesting it should be overturned.
Commissioners are bound by the body’s code of conduct, which requires them to act ‘at all times’ to ‘uphold its impartiality.’ But yesterday it emerged that chairman Sir John Holmes had publicly spoken of his ‘regret’ at the outcome of the referendum and condemned the ‘panoply of Eurosceptic nonsense’ put forward by those who campaigned for Brexit.
Fellow commissioners Bridget Prentice, Lord Horam and Professor David Howarth were also revealed to have spoken out against Brexit. The Electoral Commission is already facing accusations of bias from Brexiteers, who claim it is focusing on allegations of wrongdoing by the Leave campaign while ignoring similar claims against Remain.
The revelation that four of the its nine commissioners are publicly opposed to Brexit last night sparked calls for them to resign.
Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel, whose complaint against alleged rule breaches by Remain was dismissed by the Commission this year, said: ‘There is clear evidence the chairman and commissioners have publicly given views that undermine the standards and impartiality required in these roles. They should relinquish their positions and independent people should be brought in.’
Prominent Tory Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg described the revelations as ‘very serious’ and said those involved must step back from any role in assessing claims about referendum conduct. Former Labour MP Gisela Stuart, who co-chaired the Vote Leave campaign, said it was vital for confidence in the electoral process that senior figures at the commission were ‘seen to be unbiased’.
Sir John’s comments came in a speech made some months before he was appointed to the Commission. In a speech at Chatham House, he revealed he had voted Remain and regretted the outcome of the referendum. He said those pushing to leave the EU had ‘no coherent plan for life afterwards’. But he insisted he accepted the result, saying a second referendum would result in ‘the panoply of Eurosceptic nonsense about the EU [being] rolled out again’. Other commissioners have voiced opposition to Brexit while in the post. 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 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’
‘Should relinquish their positions’
in holding a second referendum. A fifth commissioner, Alasdair Morgan, is a former national secretary of the SNP, which has vociferously opposed Brexit.
But the Electoral Commission last night dismissed calls for the four commissioners to resign.
A spokesman said it had a number of open investigations into the EU referendum, adding: : ‘Commissioners do not have a role in the investigatory procedures and decisions, which are carried out by the executive in accordance with the Commission’s published enforcement policy and with complete impartiality.’