‘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’
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