Police have found “no evidence” of family voting in the Gorton and Denton by-election after Reform UK reported the claims.
Police have found “no evidence” of family voting in the Gorton and Denton by-election after Reform UK reported the claims.
Election observer group Democracy Volunteers said it had witnessed “concerningly high levels” of family voting, an illegal practice where two voters either confer, collude or direct each other on voting.
Hannah Spencer is the fifth Green Party MP in the current Parliament after winning the by-election (
Getty Images)
In a statement issued on Friday, Greater Manchester Police said: “We’ve concluded our investigation into alleged ‘family voting’ at last month’s Gorton and Denton by-election, finding no evidence of any intent to influence or refrain any person from voting.”
Police said Democracy Volunteers observers did not allege “any verbal instruction or physical conduct that indicated one person was directing or coercing another regarding how to vote”. “This is a crucial part of the legislation to prove such an offence was committed,” the force said.
Police said they had asked the election observer group for descriptions of those alleged to be involved, and timings on when incidents are believed to have occurred. These details “were not documented by observers or the complainant, and we have not been provided with any identities or descriptions to pursue,” GMP said.
The force said it had obtained some CCTV footage from three polling stations visited by Democracy Volunteers and spoken to the presiding officer from each one, but that these stations did not show any evidence of people directing or coercing others on how to vote. “There is no evidence to suggest any intent to influence or refrain a person from voting as stated in the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023,” it said.
The row over claims of family voting erupted overnight on the by-election night claims of “family voting”. By-election officials reacted with fury after Democracy Volunteers said it had seen family voting in 12% of polling stations.
At the time, officials said no such issues had been reported throughout the day and questioned why the group had not raised the serious allegations before then.
After the police investigation, Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “The morning after Hannah won I was asked time and time again about this. There was no evidence for it. Instead the establishment media fuelled the fire. It was Islamophobic. And it’s because those in power are scared of us ending rip off Britain.”
Police statement in full:
Issued by Greater Manchester Police
We’ve concluded our investigation into alleged ‘family voting’ at last month’s Gorton and Denton by-election, finding no evidence of any intent to influence or refrain any person from voting.
Our investigation into alleged influencing of voters at a polling booth (under Section 62C Representation of the People Act 1983 (Ballot Secrecy Act 2023)) began after a criminal report from the Reform UK party following a public statement made by independent electoral observers at Democracy Volunteers.
We have spoken to the four Democracy Volunteers observers present at polling stations on the day of the by-election (26 February) who have shared with us their eyewitness account. This includes some instances of more than one voter going into a booth at the same time, and instances of people looking over the shoulder of voters.
The information they have provided to us estimates this may have happened on 32 occasions across 15 polling stations.
The observers do not allege any verbal instruction or physical conduct that indicated one person was directing or coercing another regarding how to vote. This is a crucial part of the legislation to prove such an offence was committed.
Our investigation team, led by an experienced senior investigating officer, spoke to all four volunteers from Democracy Volunteers as part of our enquiries – obtaining a copy of their observations.
We also spoke to the Presiding Officers at 15 stations as well as the Acting Returning Officer, none of whom received any reports other than from Democracy Volunteers.
We have received no further criminal reports.
