The party’s candidate for a key vote in Manchester this week engaged in ‘inadvertent illegal practice’ but did not act deliberately.
A decision passed down by Mr Justice Barber acquitted Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin of breaching election rules. This is despite the defendant admitting leaflets handed out in Manchester failed to include a ‘statutory imprint’, as is required by law.
Goodwin is standing in the Gorton & Denton by-election tomorrow, Thursday 26th February — a vote which many believe reflects a shift in the landscape of British politics and will be won either by Reform UK or the Green Party.
Earlier this month, an investigation by Manchester Mill found that an ‘open letter’ penned by a local pensioner who had switched allegiance from Labour to Reform had originated from the latter party. Under the Representation of the People Act 1983, any election material must include the names and addresses of those it promotes, those actively promoting them, and the printer.
During the hearing, Adam Richardson, a lawyer representing Goodwin and his agent Adam Rawlinson, told a London court that draft copies of the document had carried this information and were checked ‘multiple times’. ‘For reasons known only to themselves, [the printers] decided to put on a different font at the last minute.
‘It should not have been done, it was not requested, it is unclear why it did happen, but as a result of that, the imprint was truncated off the bottom,’ he added.
Around 81,000 people received the leaflet across a constituency which is home to just over 74,000 residents of voting age.
Image: Shutterstock
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