Our new pen-pal and the unfair loophole in election law

Residents all over Southport and Sefton will be getting letters from Mr Farage at critical times during the local election period. Oddly they won’t mention the local elections or candidates, but they will certainly be suggesting voting Reform and giving a very one-sided view of the world. 

It will strike residents as odd that no mention is made of the local elections and no local candidate is named, but there is a very particular reason for that. 

There’s a limit on how much you can spend on local elections- set so that rich people can’t dominate elections and all those letters coming to Southport and Sefton residents would exceed that limit. Postage is very expensive currently. Spending too much by any party on local elections is illegal.

However there is a loophole. If you have the money you can send out as much as you like promoting a party- just don’t mention the candidates !  Mr Farage certainly has the money. Property developers, hedge fund billionaires and crypto-currency investors have pumped millions into Reform- just as their American equivalents did for Trump.

“This loophole massively distorts elections and makes them unfair, “ says Liberal Democrat, John Pugh,” the mystery is that a Labour government haven’t closed this loophole. 

In a previous life as an MP while working on the 2006 Electoral Administration Act, I pleaded with the ministers in the Blair government to close it and make elections fair. They chose not to because they thought trade union cash and funds could do for Labour what billionaires are doing for Farage (and used to do for the Tories). Now Labour councillors up and down the country will pay the price.”

“Local elections which are run by not talking much about local issues and where candidates are reduced to anonymous pawns are a form of political manipulation and can only long term lead to deeper political cynicism. I think it does a disservice to local candidates in all parties, including Reform. We all know it’s not a fair world but people are not just brands and elections should be fair."