Open Britain on the Tory Attack on the Electoral Commission

‘Dear David,

Yesterday, a Conservative majority officially forced through the first ever “Strategy and Policy Statement” for the Electoral Commission. Yes, that sounds bureaucratic and boring. But behind the seemingly innocuous procedural language lays a truly sinister intent – something that we in the democracy sector have been warning about for years now. Last night, the attack on our election watchdog’s independence moved from theory to reality.

Back in 2022, we joined forces with allies across the democracy sector to oppose the idea of government setting the Electoral Commission’s “strategy and policy”. We did so because the Commission – the crucial watchdog tasked with overseeing political donations and running UK elections – should never be influenced in a partisan way. We stood against the legislation because it’s clear that it undermines democratic fairness at the most basic level.

But the government’s Parliamentary majority forced it through anyway.

Now – despite all of the backlash from Parliamentary committees like PACAC, the Constitutional Affairs Committee, and the CSPL, from MPs across opposition parties, from campaigners like us and even the Electoral Commission itself – it’s here. The impact could be disastrous, with local and general elections quickly approaching.

So what recommendations did government make yesterday for the Commission’s “strategy and policy”? Essentially, they encouraged our elections watchdog to focus extensively on non-existent voter fraud and ignore everything else. And they barely mentioned a number of genuinely important issues, like disinformation, dodgy donations, and dark money. As Josiah Mortimer at Byline Times pointed out, the document mentions “fraud” eleven times, but only references “donations” twice.

In short, they’ve attempted to blind the referee.

One of the key recommendations (#6) in our Functional Democracy Goals 2030 report is to “restore the Electoral Commission’s independence.” The greater the elections watchdog’s independence and power, the fairer the electoral playing field will be. The UK is fast becoming a hub for dirty money in politics, and our first line of defence against that is being systematically undermined. We can’t let this stand.

Seeing these legislative changes become real is incredibly disheartening. But we’re not going to give up. We’ll continue to fight the blatant politicisation of our elections watchdog. We’ll continue to push for a strong and autonomous Electoral Commission which can’t be side-stepped or undermined by the powers of the day. And we’ll continue to ensure the ordinary voters of this country know what is being done to our democracy and by whom. We won’t stop until this fundamental corruption of our system is reversed.

Enjoy the rest of your week,

The Open Britain Team’

Open Britain on the Tories Undermining the Independence of the Electoral Commission

‘Dear David,

Is it right for the UK’s election watchdog to have its “priorities” guided by the government?

On the 14th of December 2023, the government published the final draft of its “Strategy and Policy statement” for the Electoral Commission. The early first draft, published in June, sparked a major backlash from Commissioners, MPs, the Committee on Standards in Public Life, and campaigners like OB, who accused it of jeopardising the operational independence of our key election watchdog. The government completely ignored all of those warnings, making no real changes to the document.

This “Strategy and Policy Statement”, which comes from the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (currently Michael Gove), is a product of the 2022 Elections Act. The same Act also made the Commission beholden to a Speaker’s Committee in Parliament. Now, once again – and right before a potential election – that Committee has been given a Conservative majority.

In his speech in the Commons announcing the latest draft of the government’s Strategy and Policy statement, Local Government Minister Simon Hoare argued that: 

“The Government is committed to ensuring that our democracy is secure, fair, modern and transparent. It is vital for the health of our democracy that the United Kingdom have an independent regulator that commands trust across the political spectrum and is fully accountable to Parliament.”

That all sounds great, but it’s hard to believe it when you look at those conflicts of interest – and the actual statement put out last week. As Josiah Mortimer, Chief Reporter at Byline Times, pointed out, the statement failed to include a number of real and key threats that fall under the Electoral Commission’s remit in its list of priorities. It made no mention of political disinformation, deepfakes, AI, or dirty money sloshing around our political system. 

Instead, the statement internalised the government’s own delusions about practically non-existent voter fraud. It serves more as a justification for the government’s other misguided policies (such as Voter ID) rather than a sincere effort to steer the UK’s election watchdog towards true and present dangers. It’s likely that a truly independent Electoral Commission would have a different set of priorities. 

It’s clear that it’s not right for the government to set these priorities for the Electoral Commission – it’s immensely dangerous. With a major election coming up, the UK may be dangerously ill-prepared to deal with the threats we actually face. Our watchdog will be focused on finding almost non-existent voter fraud while dark money and targeted disinformation campaigns slip by unnoticed. It’s hard not to question whether the Elections Act was just another effort to divert proper scrutiny away from the Conservative Party and its donors. 

Either way, the implementation of the Elections Act is showing it to be even more terrifying than we had imagined when we fought against it in 2022. It just isn’t possible to build a fairer political system without genuinely independent regulation – which is why we won’t stop campaigning for it. 

All the best, 

The Open Britain team’