Sir Eric Pickles, who is launching the biggest-ever investigation into electoral fraud in Britain, warns in an article for The Daily Telegraph that the authorities are “turning a blind eye to criminal conduct”.
By Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor7:35PM BST 12 Aug 2015
Electoral fraud is being ignored in the same way that child sex abuse allegations have been because politically correct police forces and councils fear offending ethnic minorities, the Government’s anti-corruption tsar says today.
Sir Eric Pickles, who is launching the biggest-ever investigation into electoral fraud in Britain, warns in an article for The Daily Telegraph that the authorities are “turning a blind eye to criminal conduct”.
It comes after Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of Tower Hamlets in east London, was earlier this year removed from office after he was found guilty of electoral fraud.
Sir Eric compares the lack of action on allegations of electoral fraud to the scandal of local authorities and police forces ignoring claims of child sex abuse in towns across Britain.
Many of those allegations concerned Asian gangs targeting vulnerable young girls.
The law must always be “applied equally and fairly to everyone”, Sir Eric warns.
“In Tower Hamlets, police and council staff failed to tackle intimidation – often in foreign languages – both inside and outside polling stations,” Mr Pickles writes.
“Just as we have seen with child sexual exploitation in places like Rochdale and Rotherham, institutionalised political correctness can lead to the state turning a blind eye to criminal conduct. But the law must be applied equally and fairly to everyone.
“Integration and good community relations are undermined by the failure to do so.”
He adds: “The problems go deep – despite years of warnings of misconduct in Tower Hamlets, the state watchdogs gave the borough’s electoral system a gold-star rating for integrity in inspection reports. We still have a series of tick-box inspections of town hall returning officers that are as ineffectual and useless as those once practised by the now-abolished Audit Commission.”
Sir Eric, who was Communities and Local Government Secretary until David Cameron’s last reshuffle, said that the Government is “no longer prepared to turn a blind eye to Britain’s modern day rotten boroughs”.
His review will report by the end of the year and will examine what steps are necessary to stop voter registration fraud and error, postal voting fraud, impersonation, intimidation and bribery.
Sir Eric raises concerns that the London mayoral elections next year could be mired by voter fraud.
“Despite the fact there are London elections next year, a sizeable minority of those voters signed up in Tower Hamlets remain unverified and could be fakes,” he writes.
“In Hackney, the situation is even worse, with almost a quarter of the electorate unverified and potentially non-existent. We urgently need to clean up these registers. Across the country, electors from abroad are not properly checked to ensure that they qualify to vote when they register.
“Fraudulent registration is frequently tied to illegal immigration, as illegal migrants sign up to make it easier to get credit or a mobile phone. Such illegality feeds through to further crimes, such as benefit and housing fraud.”
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, earlier this year set up a major inquiry into child abuse following revelations about the crimes committed by Jimmy Savile as well as disclosures about abuse in Derby, Oxford and towns across Britain.
There were also a series of allegations about a Westminster paedophile ring.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11799673/Eric-Pickles-Political-correct-officials-ignoring-electoral-fraud-just-like-sex-abuse.html
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