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UKIP chiefs admitted yesterday that they have not found evidence to substantiate Nigel Farage’s allegation that electoral fraud caused a crushing by-election defeat.
Mr Farage claimed he had evidence from “impeccable sources” that “bent” postal votes skewed the result of last week’s Oldham West and Royton by-election.
Despite his predictions that Ukip could make a breakthrough, Ukip candidate John Bickley finished more than 10,000 votes behind Labour victor Jim McMahon.
The Ukip leader vowed to call in the police to examine the “very odd things” he alleged took place at polling stations.
But over a week after he made the threat, the Morning Star can reveal that no complaint has been received by the Greater Manchester Police, Oldham Council or the Electoral Commission.
The Electoral Commission even confirmed that it had proactively contacted Ukip to “see if it had any evidence that it would like to share.”
The Star asked Ukip why it had failed to act on its accusations. A spokesman said: “We said we would look at the evidence we’ve got and if it was satisfactory we would go to the police.
“Honestly I don’t know how far that has got. It was a question of digging into the evidence.
“It’s one thing to have anecdotal evidence and another having something to say.”
Mr Farage had claimed that Labour had exploited “some really quite big ethnic changes now in the way people are voting.
“In some of these seats where people don’t speak English and they sign up to postal votes,” he said.
“Effectively the electoral process is now dead.”
Even Ukip deputy chair Suzanne Evans dismissed the comments at the time, warning her party “risked just sounding like bad losers.”
And shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth said yesterday that Ukip’s failure to make a formal complaint showed Mr Farage’s comments were just “offensive bluster.”
He told the Star: “I think we all know what Ukip were trying to suggest.
“But the fact that they haven't actually got any evidence to make an official complaint just shows they were making cheap accusations.”
