Five people in Greater Manchester have been arrested over allegations of fraud linked to the local elections in Tameside involving the alleged fielding of fake independent candidates to split the anti-Labour vote. The Telegraph has the story.
It follows an investigation by the Manchester Mill website, which claimed fake independent candidates were put forward by the Tameside Labour group in a bid to split votes for opposition parties.
Manchester Mill reported allegations that internal messages had been posted in WhatsApp groups connected to the party, discussing planting fake independent candidates on the ballot paper.
The tactic would split the votes going against the Labour candidate. The messages were allegedly deleted instantly by other members of the group, with instructions not to discuss the topic in the chat.
There were allegedly ‘fake’ independents standing in the St Peter’s ward called Muhammad Ali and Marie Fairhurst.
A woman in the area of that name had no idea she was on the ballot paper, according to the Tameside Correspondent who approached her.
St Peter’s ward was the only one in Tameside to return a Labour councillor on May 7th, with the remaining 18 being won by Reform UK.
GMP said: “This morning, officers in Tameside arrested five people on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud as part of an investigation into alleged offences committed leading up to the local elections.
“In the days leading up to and following the election on May 7th, we received reports surrounding concerns about candidates within the St Peter’s ward.
“Following initial enquiries last week, we have launched a full investigation into the allegations.
“The work is specifically investigating the process of how candidates were put forward and represented in the ward, and if this adhered to the relevant legislation and electoral procedures.
“The five people – four men and a woman aged between 23 and 47 – were arrested at addresses in Tameside this morning. They remain in custody for questioning.
“We are working closely with the Electoral Commission and local partners as part of our enquiries. We will provide further updates as we progress our investigation further.”
The Tameside council area covers Angela Rayner’s constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne.
The arrests come at a critical time for the Labour Party in Manchester, less than four weeks before a crucial by-election in Makerfield in which Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham will seek to become MP to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the party leadership.
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Communists like Labour, lying and cheating to win elections, surely not?
Ginger Growler Rayner denies all knowledge of the scam. But then, she would, wouldn’t she.
The BBC news website reports this as if it’s just another side-issue story. If this fraud was the work of Reform, it would be top billing for days.
It’s not Reform, it’s Labour, so they’ve ‘mentioned’ it, and that will be that.
Fortunately this is only one ward and the result makes no difference to Reform having a large majority on the council.
It might of happened in a few other wards up and down the country but I’m sure that overall this type of fraud is much less of a problem than family voting and block voting i.e. a lot of Muslims are told by their mosque to get a postal vote, them mosque then collects all the postal votes and fills them in. This type of fraud is easy to stop if people have to show they have a very good reason to need a postal vote e.g. they regularly work away from home. I wasn’t able to vote in 2017 because I was working away from home and because the election was called at short notice I wasn’t able to get a postal vote in time.
It’s what the Left does. Lies, cheats, threatens, shouts down, censors, uses violence……
To my mind, the problem. Isn’t fake independent voters being fielded. The problem. Is people voting for fake independents.
Doesn’t say much about voters….
If it resuts in charges, will any jury be able to come to a verdict?
Good point, and while I don’t generally support the abolition of jury trials there does seem a pattern where a proportion of jurors share the religion of the accused. Take for example the failure to reach a decision on the Manchester Airport “two”, despite CCTV evidence (two trials), or the acquittal of ex-Labour councillor Ricky Jones for his throat-cutting gesture (again video evidence, mimicking how a friend’s mum was murdered by a drug-crazed Muslim).
Jury trials worked fine for 1000 years, then they import this lot and like everything else they touch this is now FUBAR.
Would it be racist to suggest that only white people or non-muslims could stand as jurors? It’s the only way to save them.
Nope. I’m with you. This country should be run for and by the white, native peops only. Any immigrants should have lesser rights than we. And no immigrants, until the 3rd generation should have any right to become a polticial person of any kind. And the armed forces should all be of the native poplualtion only. And the police, and…..
If as I suspect its members of a higher status community, don’t hold your breath, no doubt apologies and compensation will follow, as clearly there will be nothing to see there.
This one’s nothing to do with religion. It was heavily trailed before the election by the local independent that the Labour Party had put up a number of fake independents to split that vote and ensure the socialist got in, which happened. He was the only Labour elected.
You mean their grand parents didn’t work in’t mill?