THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he does not "trust" the voting system and that a Reform government would ban non-British citizens from voting in British parliamentary elections.
Currently only British citizens, qualifying Commonwealth citizens or citizens of the Republic Of Ireland may vote in an election to the UK Parliament so this does not include US citizens residing in the UK through a visa. However, if you are a US Citizen with dual UK nationality and are resident in the UK, you are eligible to vote. Similarly, you should be eligible to vote if you have a dual Irish Citizenship, or are a dual citizen with a qualifying Commonwealth nation.
Farage also declared that he would “impose a strict ban on wholesale postal voting”, with only elderly and disabled people, serving British armed forces personnel and those working overseas during an election being permitted to vote by mail. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph and Mail on Sunday newspapers he said, “For too long, postal voting has allowed our elections to be turned into a laughing stock, riddled with fraud, intimidation and outright cheating. It’s been allowed to go on for years and has poisoned trust in our democracy.”
It is not clear why he believes elections are beset by fraud, intimidation and cheating; Election Check 24 (a coalition of news publishers and fact-checkers brought together by PA Media to fact check the UK’s and Ireland’s general elections and counter misinformation around them) concluded in 2024 that convictions for postal vote fraud are rare in the UK, and there were only two in the previous five years, both in local elections and none in the general elections. Further, the Electoral Commission has said that there was “no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud” in the UK over the same period despite more than a quarter of votes being cast by post at the last general election.
