Professional victim Nigel Farage is whining that Reform’s recent loss in Gorton and Denton is the result of cheating. Never mind for the moment that Manchester is historically a left-wing heartland, whilst Farage’s party is on the far right. It was definitely cheating though.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Reform leader is still banging on about alleged family voting in Gorton and Denton. Now, however, he’s also accusing overseas voters from the Commonwealth as having tipped the by-election.
Meanwhile, Hannah Spencer MP – the Green’s victorious by-election candidate – has accused Farage of emulating his hero Trump in crying election fraud. Which, let’s be honest here, is clearly what’s happening.
Farage is a Poundland Trump
Writing for the upstanding British fascist’s newspaper of choice, Farage began:
For years, I warned of the looming threat of sectarian voting. Naturally, of course, I was derided by the political establishment and accused of spouting outrageous hyperbole.
My generation grew up witnessing the violent horrors of sectarianism in Northern Ireland and the impact it had.
But most believed it could never come to England.
That was until the last general election, when four pro-Gaza Independent MPs were elected to Parliament. Then, finally, everybody woke up to those dangers.
This is almost so brilliant that I don’t know where to start. First, on a purely historical note, sectarianism is a centuries-old fixture of English political life. Those monasteries didn’t dissolve themselves now, did they?
Even limiting the scope to Northern Ireland-related sectarianism, that also very famously came to England.
But Farage isn’t actually talking about sectarianism, is he? Rather, Farage is talking about Muslims; he’s just too much of a weasel to say it directly. We can see this from his definition of sectarianism being ‘some MPs are pro-Gaza now’.
(Quick reminder – Israel is still committing genocide, and the UK has a legal duty to oppose it).
‘Let’s be frank’: he made it up
The Reform leader acknowledged that his tantrum would be “viewed as sour grapes”. However, he bravely soldiered on:
What happened last Thursday at the Gorton and Denton by-election, in which the Green Party emerged victorious in a historically Labour stronghold, was the most glaring example yet of what happens if we’re not careful about the impact of mass immigration and the legitimacy of those who can vote in our elections.
Because let’s be frank: Reform UK won the Gorton and Denton by-election among British-born voters.
Absolutely fucking incredible. An extraordinary claim, given that Farage hopefully hasn’t seen a breakdown of the votes by demographic. You know, given that that would be a deeply illegal violation of voter anonymity.
So what is it that makes the Reform leader so certain? Well, he explains:
What makes me so certain of saying this is that the raw figures are so stark: 10 per cent of the overall constituency were born in Pakistan. […]
There were 14 wards that made up the constituency and in ten of them, more than 20 per cent of people were born abroad.
In one ward, Longsight, 48 per cent of the population are foreign-born.
Yes, that’s roughly how many people in these areas weren’t born in the UK. But Farage’s claim was about how they voted. You don’t think he might be… making things up about people from other countries, do you? What kind of person would do something like that?
Commonwealth voting
Farage then swings around to his unexpected new pet peeve: the British Empire:
But the issue that is most astonishing, and, frankly, is not discussed enough, is the right for Commonwealth citizens to vote in UK elections. […]
If you come into this country from a Commonwealth nation such as Pakistan, provided you can prove that you normally reside at a property within a constituency, through Commonwealth rights you get the right to vote.
As a result, the thousands of those who voted Green last Thursday are not actually British citizens.
Again, absolutely fascinating claim. I’d love to know where Farage got all of his data about who voted for the Greens, and by what means. The source needs reporting to the Electoral Commission.
Family voting, again
Farage also swung back to complaining about “extraordinarily dishonest behaviour” in polling stations:
Democracy Volunteers, a group of election observers who check that voting processes are being followed correctly, claimed last week that in 68 per cent of the polling stations they surveyed in Gorton and Denton, they witnessed what they described as ‘family voting’.
This is a process where people are walking into booths with their relatives, many of whom speak little or no English, and watch over them as they vote for the ‘right’ candidate.
Make no mistake: This practice must be outlawed.
This practice was outlawed, three years ago. It was called the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023. It’s one of the reasons why groups like Democracy Volunteers monitor polling stations.
Now, if family voting is happening, it needs to be taken seriously. However, there’s a few problems with Farage’s claim here.
First and foremost, Democracy Volunteers made absolutely no claims about the alleged family voting being among Muslims. Nor, for that matter, did they claim that the votes went to the Greens. Farage has, once again, jumped to the conclusion that Muslims are doing illegal things with absolutely no basis.
Second, if sectarianism is such an issue, why would all of these supposedly hyper-conservative Muslims force their families to vote for a left-wing woman from a party led by a gay Jewish bloke? After all, all the Reform candidate ever did was claim Muslims are terrorist sympathisers. Surely he deserved the Muslim vote?
And third, it’s odd that Democracy Volunteers’ claims of family voting were flatly contradicted by the polling station staff themselves.
Wannabe Trump-lite prick
Meanwhile, the Green’s newest MP – Hannah Spencer – called Farage’s pathetic display out for what it is:
Everyone’s vote is equal. Farage today is talking racist nonsense and is trying to sound like his hero Donald Trump who also tried to deny the results of an election he lost.
Farage doesn’t even know who voted for Reform, it’s a secret ballot and he spent hardly any time in the constituency. Farage has insulted the people of my constituency by saying people who voted Green don’t work. We won by appealing to everyone, including Reform voters, and his party were shown the door.
Farage is blatantly laying the groundwork to claim that future elections have been stolen. It’s the same tactic that his mate Trump used to incite the January 6th Capitol riot.
Utterly specious claims of electoral fraud are a method of voter suppression. Once you can make the public doubt the democratic process, you can throw out any election result that doesn’t suit you.
This tactic is, at its heart, fascist. It’s cheap, it’s dirty, and it’s Nigel Farage all over – pathetic little Trump fanboy that he is.
Featured image via the Canary
