Watchdog orders councils to scrap EU guide ‘that favours Remain’

THE Electoral Commission was last night hurriedly contacting all counting officers in the UK telling them not to send out a controversial “biased” guide to postal voters which suggests they should support the Remain side in next month’s referendum.

The move came after the regulator told Bristol city council – which has already sent the leaflet to 47,000 homes – to stop distribution as it began an investigation into whether the issue was more widespread.

The step-by-step guide includes advice to “read the instructions carefully, then complete your ballot paper”, above an image showing a pencil in a hand hovering over the box to “remain a member of the European Union”.

Other voters across the country last night said they too had received the same guide, suggesting that hundreds of thousands of voters could be unfairly encouraged to back Remain.

More than six million people voted by post at last year’s general election, suggesting a similar number might do the same in the EU referendum.

A spokesman for the commission said: “As a precaution, we are contacting all counting officers to make clear to them that if they are using images the same as, or similar to, the image used by Bristol city council, they should ensure that these are changed before any further postal votes are distributed.”

Bernard Jenkin, who supports the Leave campaign and chairs a Commons committee that oversees the conduct of the referendum, said the development was “absolutely astonishing”.

Mr Jenkin said: “This is an absolute outrage that a form should be so bad that it has to be redesigned during a poll because it is so biased. How on Earth did this happen and who is going to be held accountable? Bristol should reissue the forms to the 47,000 people who have received a biased form.”

Postal voters in Bristol received the “how to vote by post” form as part of the EU referendum packs which were sent out at the end of last week.

Hours after The Daily Telegraph disclosed the concerns about the guide, Bristol city council said that it would redesign it before sending out the remaining 5,000 forms. However, a spokesman said the council would not be sending new guides to voters who had received one. She said: “The placement of the pen graphic was entirely incidental and we do not believe that anybody could reasonably be influenced by such a graphic. However, given current sensitivities, for all future postal vote dispatches the form and graphic will be amended.”

The Telegraph established last night that voters in Sittingbourne, Kent had received the same form. John Owen said the pencil on his “how to” guide was “hovering right over” the Remain box. He said: “I think it amounts to bias on behalf of the Remain campaign.”

Arron Banks, a backer of the Leave. EU campaign, said: “We have every reason to believe these papers are not just being sent out in Bristol but nationwide. Even the Bristol intervention could determine the outcome.

“But if it is nationwide – and we believe it is – then it is very difficult to see how any postal ballots can be taken into consideration, which throws the whole referendum into doubt.”

Stephen Parkinson, Vote Leave national organiser, said: “It is completely unacceptable for official guidance from local councils to appear to tell people which way to vote. We have contacted the Electoral Commission to find out how many ballot papers might have been influenced in this way, and to ask them to take urgent steps to correct it.”