Row over report of 'high levels of illegal family voting' in Gorton & Denton as council says no concerns were raised

Election observers, Democracy Volunteers, said they attended 22 of the 45 polling stations in the constituency on Thursday, and claimed to have witnessed family voting in 15 locations.

But Manchester City Council has hit back at the organisation, saying it has received no reports of "undue influence on voters".

Family voting is an illegal practice where two voters either confer, collude or direct each other on voting and can involve husbands telling their wives how to vote.

The non-partisan group alleged they observed a sample of 545 individuals casting their vote and saw 32 cases of family voting in total, including nine cases in one polling station.

John Ault, director of Democracy Volunteers, said: "Today we have seen concerningly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton. Based on our assessment of today's observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK.

"We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent by-elections, is extremely high.

"In the other recent Westminster parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby we saw family voting in 12 per cent of polling stations, affecting one per cent of voters.

"In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68 per cent of polling stations, affecting 12 per cent of those voters observed."

No concerns on family voting reported to polling staff, says council

Manchester City Council's Acting Returning Officer released a statement in response.

A spokesperson said: "Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.

"If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues, they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken.

"We have operated a central by-election hub which has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police - who had a presence at every polling station - where necessary.

"It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims."

Nigel Farage claimed the report "raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas".

The leader of Reform UK, which was in a tight three-way race with Labour and the Greens, said on X: "Incidents of family voting in Gorton & Denton reached the highest levels of any election in the past 10 years, says [Sky News].

"This is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas."

Lisa Smart, Lib Dem MP for Hazel Grove, told LBC that the issue was serious.

She told Ben Kentish: "I know that there have been allegations about this happening in polling stations across the country over time.

"I'm aware that there's some information flying around online to say that an organisation who's been observing polling stations today have seen that happen quite a lot. I know of that organisation, I know it is legit, and I have no reason to think anything other than what they are saying is completely true as to what they have observed.

"If they saw it in 15 polling stations, which is what they're saying, I mean, could we be looking again at the results?

"I think if anybody thinks that the law has been broken, then they should report that to the police. Of course they should. I haven't had a chance to read the full report. I've just seen snippets that somebody else has shown me online.

"But if anybody thinks an election law has been broken, they should obviously report it to the police and then they should investigate accordingly."