Tories accuse left-wing students of ‘voting twice’ in general election
Senior Tories are accusing left-wing youngsters of breaking the law during the general election, with claims they cast their vote twice.
The government has signaled it will be reviewing electoral rules amid reports of students boasting on social media about casting their vote twice – once in their home constituency and again in their university town.
Under the current system, people are allowed to register to vote in two different places, but it is a criminal offence to vote twice.
The Tories suffered a blow in the general election, losing their 17-seat working majority, forcing leader Theresa May to sign a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to help prop up a minority administration.
It is thought that an unusually high turnout among young voters gave May’s Labour opponents a significant boost. Now senior Tories are suggesting Labour benefitted from voter fraud.
Former Tory leadership contender Andrea Leadsom told MPs there is a need to investigate any potential abuse of the democratic system.
Leadsom was responding to Wellingborough MP Peter Bone, who claimed left-leaning students had announced on social media they had voted twice in the June 8 election.
“It has been brought to my attention that people can be registered to vote in a general election in two places.
“I am registered in London and in my constituency,” Bone said, according to the Daily Express.
“However, a number of students are bragging on social media that they voted not only where they live, but where they go to university. That is an abuse, so could we have a statement from the Cabinet Office on that matter next week?”
Bone also said an investigation is needed to verify whether groups such as Momentum, a grassroots Labour campaign, could be behind students’ double voting.
Responding to Bone, Leadsom said: “We must get to the bottom of people deliberately voting twice, which I understand is illegal.
“We need to investigate that and ensure that parliamentary democracy, for which this country has been famous—this is indeed the mother of all Parliaments—upholds the rights of one person and one vote.”
The accusation against young voters, however, was first raised by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
In an interview with US media, Farage said voters had been so attracted by Labour’s “Marxist” policies that they voted for its leader twice.
Farage said the reason why so many people are flocking to Labour is that they are yet to understand the implications of Marxism. He claimed they had been lured by Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist promises, such as the scrapping of university tuition fees.
“Marxism is very appealing if you’ve never been exposed to it before or seen what history has done with it,” said Farage.
“Corbyn went around saying to our students ‘look, I will wipe away all your tuition fees, I will promise you a land where there’ll be money for this, and money for that, and it’ll all be absolutely lovely’ and young people were very attracted by it.”
