ELECTIONS (VALIDITY OF NOMINATION PAPERS) (Hansard, 26 May 1971)

§ Mr. Thomas Torney (Bradford, South)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the provisions of Schedule 2 to the Representation of the People Act, 1949, relating to the validity of nomination papers for parliamentary and local elections. I feel sure that right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House will agree that we in this country conduct our elections with tremendous tolerance, a great deal of fairness, and a very responsible administration of detail by people who carry out their tasks with an impartiality which is beyond reproach. Indeed, our electoral system is the envy of the world. That is why this House should ensure that anyone who dares to damage our good name in the world in this respect by committing an abuse of the law should have the full rigour of the law applied to him.

My attention has been directed to a case in Bradford during the recent municipal elections. Part of my constituency is in Bradford. In this area names have appeared on a nomination paper of people who have not given consent for their names to go on that paper.

I quote from the Bradford Telegraph and Argus of 3rd May. A gentleman called Atkinson said that he considered any suggestion of using his name on a nomination paper as damn cheeky. I have definitely not signed Mr. Rimmington's nomination paper and will even swear to this in court. Mr. Rimmington does not even know me. Nobody from his party has ever been near my house. I want this thrashing out in court. I object to my name being used in this way. This elector is highly indignant that his name should have been used to assert that the nomination of a candidate at the election was valid when he did not know that his name had been placed on the paper. He certainly did not sign the paper. This is a flagrant case of forging the name of an elector on the paper.

When this matter was reported to the returning officer in Bradford, it was apparently learned that his only duty concerning the nomination paper is to ensure that the person whose name appears on the paper lives at the said address, that 390 his name appears on the electoral roll, and that he has indeed a vote in that district. That is the end of the returning officer's responsibility.

This seems a poor state of affairs. It appears that here is a loophole concerning our electoral law. As I said, our electoral law is the envy of the world. I am convinced that it is a good electoral law and that we should ensure that abuses of this kind are not allowed.

I should make it perfectly clear that representatives of the three main political parties, election agents, and so on, are scrupulously careful to ensure that the law of the land in this respect is obeyed. There is no criticism of the representatives of those parties.

The case to which I have referred in Bradford is outside the three main political parties. It is one of a group of candidates who are prepared to use the worst prejudices of people to stir racial intolerance and to seriously disturb racial harmony. They are people who have little or no regard for our election laws, who are prepared to use our democratic procedures and systems for their own nasty ends, but to abuse them when it suits them to do so. I believe that these people must be made to conform to the laws to which hon. Members on both sides prescribe and by which I am sure we are all anxious to abide in fighting elections.

My Bill seeks to amend the regulations to ensure that this will not happen again by giving the returning officer greater authority to check the identity of anyone whose name appears upon a nomination paper if there is any doubt.