Demand to stop ‘sectarianism’ distorting Britain’s democracy

Britain must end the era of “mass migration” and make sweeping election reforms to prevent “political sectarianism” distorting democracy, a new report warns. The Centre for a Better Britain is calling for new electoral offences against “religious coercion” and restrictions on foreign language campaigning. It also wants the use of postal votes limited to those with a genuine medical need.

The authors push for an end to the right of Commonwealth citizens to vote in British elections and recommend a “more restrictive model of citizenship”.They call for a new Elections Integrity Act which would “criminalise actions by religious figures or organisations” that use spiritual authority or a sense of communal obligation to influence electoral outcomes.

The report suggests giving the Electoral Commission new powers to restrict the use of campaigning materials in languages other than English, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Scots, Ulster-Scots, and Scots Gaelic. It argues this would “curb the most blatant attempts to influence the outcome of elections by appealing to particular ethnic or cultural communities”.

The Centre for a Better Britain – which has a close relationship with Reform UK – warns that mass migration risks undermining democracy.

The report states: “The British people were never asked whether they wanted mass migration – if they had been asked, they would most likely have said no.”

It claims that voters “have consistently voted for parties promising to control and reduce immigration” but “time and time again, their wishes have been ignored”.

Limiting postal voting to people with an illness would, it argues, “at a stroke remove the potential for widespread postal voting fraud” and “allow a genuinely secret ballot unaffected by kinship groups or political activists”.

It further recommends banning local government grants to charities with “explicitly racial, ethnic, or religious orientations”. People convicted of fraud “relating to ethnic or religious sectarianism”, the report states, should face lifetime electoral bans “to safeguard the integrity of Britain’s democratic process”.

The report lands a day after Shadow Communities Secretary Katie Lam attacked Green party leader Zack Polanski for recording a video in French ahead of the by-election for Sir Keir Starmer’s old seat of Holborn and St Pancras.

She said: “When candidates campaign in a foreign language, the vast majority of people can’t understand the promises they make. It makes it impossible to hold our would-be representatives to account. We must ban this practice. Politics must be conducted in the language of public life.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said concerns must not be “swept under the carpet”.

He said: “Britain cannot have a healthy democracy if people are afraid to exercise their vote freely, or if mass immigration is allowed to reshape our politics.”

Tom Brake of Unlock Democracy opposed restricting postal voting, saying: “In a democracy, we should want as many eligible voters to vote as possible. To that end, we should be making voting as easy as possible, not harder. Asking a potential voter to produce a doctor’s note before we allow them to vote by post is not only a laughable proposal practically, it would put a major new barrier in the way of participation. The costs of such a move vastly outweigh any notional ‘benefits’ the report claims.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We reject the claims in this report. We have made significant progress in reducing net migration, which is down by 82% from its 2023 peak, and visa numbers continue to fall as we deliver the control the public expect. “We have no plans to introduce these recommendations on voting, and our elections continue to be safe and secure. The Greater Manchester Police have completed their investigation and found no evidence of family voting in the Gorton and Denton by-election.”