Reform defends plan to deny postal votes to people away on holiday
Nina Lloyd, Press Association Political Correspondent
People who go on holiday during an election would be “disenfranchising themselves” under Reform UK proposals to curb postal voting, one of the party’s MPs has said.
Danny Kruger said anyone wanting to cast a ballot would “need to do it in person” unless they are “literally unable to get there” under the plans.
Reform has called for sweeping changes to the electoral system, including removing the right of Commonwealth citizens to vote and banning campaign material in foreign languages.
Postal voting would also be limited to serving members of the armed forces and others such as elderly or disabled people who are deemed “unable to vote in person”.
Asked whether the party was effectively disenfranchising people who happen to be on holiday when an election takes place, Mr Kruger, the Reform MP for East Wiltshire, told Times Radio: “Absolutely not, no.
“If people are not around for the day in which the election is happening, they’re disenfranchising themselves.”
It was put to him that holidaymakers can cast postal votes under existing rules, to which he replied: “If you want to vote in our elections, you need to do it in person. That is a traditional principle.
“The postal vote is an exception awarded to people who are literally unable to get there.”
Reform also argues its proposal to remove the right of Commonwealth citizens to vote would prevent “hundreds of thousands of immigrants from influencing our choice of political leaders in parliamentary elections and local government elections in England and Wales”.
Under existing rules, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen is defined as someone from a Commonwealth nation who has been granted permission to enter or stay in the UK or who does not require such permission.
Labour said Nigel Farage had voted by post himself at the 2024 general election and “as ever, it’s one rule for him and another for everyone else”.
A party spokesperson said: “This is yet another desperate attempt by Reform to deflect attention from the scandals Nigel Farage and his top team are drowning in.
“It’s time he came clean with the public over his secret £5 million ‘gift’ and rid his party of the enormous amount of sleaze and scandals that have come to light.
“The integrity of our democratic system is something Labour will always protect. That’s why we’re taking tough action to safeguard our democracy through the Representation of the People Bill.
“Meanwhile Reform wants to stop people voting if they go on holiday, despite Nigel Farage having voted by post himself. As ever, it’s one rule for him and another for everyone else.”
‘Out of touch’
The Liberal Democrats said Mr Kruger’s remarks about postal voting showed how “wildly out of touch” Reform were.
The party’s Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart said: “Whilst Nigel Farage can jump on a private jet to get wined and dined in Mar a Lago, when its hardworking Brits trying to head off for a break, they get slammed by Reform UK.
“Threatening to take away postal votes and telling people they are disenfranchising themselves from democracy simply for taking a holiday shows just how wildly out of touch they truly are.
“We should be making it easier for people to vote, not harder.”
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Hardly a surprise. Shut down democracy, crush human rights and, their stock in trade, HATE FIRST.
So i take it that campaign materials will be admissible in Irish & Scottish Gaelic in Ireland and Scotland respectively, in Welsh in Wales and in Cornish in Cornwall on the grounds that they are NOT ‘foreign’ languages. Yeah right. Watch this very closely because if THESE languages are ruled out, Krugers’ definition of ‘foreign’ must apply to England ONLY and that’s our independence and the end of the British Empire right there, at last.
I have been postal voting for decades. Postal voting is not an issue. It is an issue for Reform because people are likely to vote against them this way. Yet the far right politicians will remove every single right you have now to make themselves rich. This is out of Trumps play book to stop people voting. They will remove your right to vote. And calling turning up as “traditional”. Idiots. Postal voting was brought in WW1, speaking of which maybe he needs to bring back another “tradition” from around that time and that is only women over 30 can… Read more »
Let’s go the full hog and ban voting altogether.That is if Reform ever get in to power. !930’s here we come.
Reform’s next plan is to disenfranchise every voter who doesn’t endorse them in 2029.
Before long, public figures who speak out will be falling out of windows under mysterious circumstances. Haven’t we seen this movie before?
Reform will say and do anything to take the focus away from their cult leader Nigel Farage’s dodgy finances. The more extreme the better.
What a bunch of morons straight fron the american clockwork orange clown’s handbook.
So will they also include a bank holiday on election days and make sure the weather’s perfect because that is why I missed casting my ballot one year and I signed up for postal voting?
Postal votes are an important lever for us the electorate to choose who serves our needs. These jumped up mini trump’s need to understand, they are our employee’s if elected and we have the right to get rid. That our so called british values (using there words , not mine). Their Fascism is not welcome.
A half baked and ill thought out announcement to deflect from the investigation into the cash donations to Nigel Farage. Note the proposal to include armed service personnel but no consideration to those seafarers, fishermen, offshore staff and those contractors ‘working away’ so common in Wales. It’s an attempt to disenfranchise voters who are unlikely to vote ReformUK
Chill, they won’t get anywhere near government.