Islam versus Europe

George Galloway, the former Labour MP who has made a career out of pandering to Muslims, has just won a sensational victory as a Respect candidate in the Bradford West by-election, capturing what has long been a secure Labour seat.

It should be a lesson to all the mainstream parties that it is folly to try and play the Muslim game. The Muslims will pretend to go along with the Establishment parties, then, once they have achieved a decisive enough share of the population, simply let them drop and elect their own man. This is exactly the pattern we saw in Tower Hamlets. Now it recurs in Bradford.

But is this an honest victory? Reading the press accounts, there are various subtle hints that some skulduggery may have been afoot.

Throughout the campaign, none of the polling predicted this result. Galloway owes his victory to a mysterious late surge.

In the last 48 hours, Ed Miliband's circle started to voice private concerns that a late push by Galloway among the large Asian community might drag the Labour vote down and propel the Conservative candidate to victory. But few Labour officials or outside experts were predicting that Galloway would poll more than 20%, let alone win the seat.

But in the final 48 hours, the Respect vote started to surge, especially among Asian youth, opening up a serious possibility that Galloway could be taken back to the Commons only two years after losing in 2010.

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Unusually high turnout:

Turnout in the poll was just over 50 per cent – considered high for such a contest, especially in an urban area.

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And those ever helpful postal ballots:

Labour's nerves in Bradford started to show early in the evening when reports emerged that postal ballots showed Labour and Galloway running neck and neck.

At the weekend Galloway held a highly successful 1,000-strong rally, winning the support of some leading mosques, even though the Bradford-born Labour candidate Imran Hussein is a Pakistani Muslim and deputy leader of the council.

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Labour went into the contest - sparked by the resignation due to ill-health of Marsha Singh - the overwhelming favourites with bookmakers.

Some had closed their books yesterday, however, after receiving a late flurry of large bets that Mr Galloway would cause a serious upset.

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Bookmakers Ladbrokes said the result was the largest by-election loss in the company's history. They had suspended betting on Thursday afternoon after seeing a surge of support for the Respect candidate.

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I recall once, when I saw the athlete Carl Lewis defeated in the Olympic 100m sprint final by Ben Johnson, Lewis, interviewed shortly after the race, said Johnson's victory was "like magic". This, of course, was a hint that something wasn't quite right about it. Later Johnson was found guilty of taking drugs and stripped of his medal. Reading the opinions on Galloway's victory expressed by various politicians and publications today, it strikes me that there is a hint of Lewis' "like magic" about them. Maybe it's just my imagination.

Was this another case of Muslim vote fraud? It's notable that the Conservatives were issuing dramatic warnings about vote fraud during the by-election campaign. They even published and distributed a booklet on the subject.

The Conservative Party is delivering a new booklet in the hope of preventing postal vote fraud in the Bradford West by-election.

The ‘Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Vote’ information booklets are being delivered through doors by its campaigners.

Kris Hopkins, Conservative MP for Keighley, said it was up to all the political parties to stamp out postal vote fraud and that Bradford’s politics had been blighted by it for too long, damaging people’s confidence in the democratic process.

Councillor Glen Miller, leader of the Tory group on Bradford Council, said he believed the booklets would be welcomed and help “encourage residents to be careful with their voting registration slips and report any cases of voting fraud.”

The party’s candidate in the by-election Jackie Whiteley said: “We need to make sure that everyone fights an election that results in a true representation of voters’ wishes. Only then can the people of Bradford West get the fair outcome they deserve.”

The booklet comes after the Respect party’s candidate George Galloway outlined his own fears that postal vote fraud might be taking place in the constituency.

He has already written to Bradford Council chief executive Tony Reeves, who is the returning officer overseeing the election, asking what measures are in place to tell voters of their rights – he also wants to know what steps are being taken to monitor any potential problems.

According to Mr Galloway, 10,000 people have registered for postal votes in the by-election. He said he was “vehemently opposed to the postal voting system on demand” because it was “wide open to fraud.”

Suzan Hemingway, Bradford Council’s city solicitor and acting deputy returning officer, said: “The Council and West Yorkshire Police always deal robustly with election issues to support democracy, so that the public can have full confidence in their outcome and that any allegations of electoral fraud are always reported to the police.

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Bizarrely, George Galloway, too, warned about vote fraud during the election campaign. He claimed to believe that it would mainly benefit the established parties.

I am writing to you about my fears that this by-election may be corrupted by large-scale fraud and the illegal acquisition of votes.

As you know, some 10,000 electors have been registered for postal votes in this election. As you will also know the majority of these voters have been signed up for postal votes by activists in the major political parties. This is done to make it easier to ensure their “core” voters cast their votes in elections. It is possible that this encouragement is done legally, but it is a system also wide open to illegal pressure and other fraudulent practices.

I have witnessed this large-scale corruption of the electoral process in Tower Hamlets where I was MP for five years. And we have seen a number of individuals jailed with long sentences over the last few years, including here in Bradford for voting fraud.

In my understanding postal vote fraud may take place in any of four ways. Firstly, voters who don’t live here or who have died or who may never have existed may be registered to vote. Secondly, votes may be redirected to other addresses where they are then cast by other people. Thirdly, blank ballot papers may be collected by “friends and family” and then filled in by other people. Fourthly, voters may be intimidated into voting for particular candidates through the loss of the secrecy of the ballot box.

I have campaigned for the last 8 years on this issue but, despite some modest tightening up of the system, it remains wide open to fraud, especially of the fourth kind which is so difficult to prove. That is why I remain vehemently opposed to the postal voting system on demand. Sadly it is of such benefit to the major political parties, nothing has been done to change this flawed system.

I am particularly concerned about fraud in the Bradford West by-election because the election is likely to be very close and it is in these circumstances that corruption most often occurs. I am writing to you today to ask what measures you are taking to inform voters of their rights and obligations and of the penalties for fraudulently casting votes in elections and what steps are being taken by you, in conjunction with the police, to monitor the situation and encourage reporting of any suspected corrupt practice.

Yours faithfully
George Galloway
Respect candidate in the Bradford West by-election

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