Nigel Farage calls for shake-up of postal voting system after Peterborough by-election failure

Nigel Farage the leader of Britain's Brexit Party poses for photographers outside 10 Downing Street. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) - Credit: AP

Nigel Farage is calling for changes to the postal voting system after alleging impropriety during the Peterborough by-election, at which the Brexit Party lost to Labour.

The party referred to numerous “rumours” of vote rigging at a London press conference. Yet Cambridgeshire police have so far found no evidence of any electoral fraud.

WATCH: Police find no offences in three claims of electoral fraud made about Peterborough by-electionAt the by-election, Labour’s Lisa Forbes won the poll by 683 votes, narrowly pushing out the Brexit Party into second place.

Farage called for an investigation into the election, as well as a reduction in the ability to cast postal votes.

“It’s about a system that is wide open to corruption, to intimidation, to bribery, to abuse on a whole number of levels,” he added.

Postal votes are “a very major part of that”, said Farage.

Denying this was a case of sour grapes, he said: “My ambition would be that by the next general election to get rid of the current postal vote system.”

Wheelchair users and overseas service personnel are among those Farage suggested should keep the postal vote.

Tice also claimed there is evidence that a “convicted electoral fraudster” had acted as an agent for the Labour Party, referring to Tariq Mahmood, a former Labour vote-rigger who was jailed in 2008.

The Times has reported on alleged ties between Mahmood and the Labour Party during the 2019 campaign, while the party denies he had any role.

Tice asked: “How much did Lisa Forbes, the elected MP, know that she had a convicted electoral fraudster in her team who would count as an agent?”

He called for “answers” and said his party would lodge a petition under the Representation of the People Act 1983 later this week.

Cambridgeshire police continue to investigate two electoral fraud allegations – one of a breach of the privacy of the vote, and one of the burning of ballots.