Police have been urged to probe claims of illegal voting activity during the Gorton and Denton by-election after independent observers raised the alarm about ‘family voting’.

Nigel Farage lashed out at ‘cheating’ and Reform’s candidate Matt Goodwin blasted ‘dangerous Muslim sectarianism’ in the wake of his crushing defeat by the Greens, after Democracy Volunteers said there were potential breaches of electoral law.

‘Family voting’ is where a voter is accompanied by another person, often a relative,  into or near polling booths with the intention of influencing their vote.

Tougher legislation, known as the Ballot Secrecy Act, was introduced in 2023 in a bid to clamp down on the practice. That made clear it was an offence.   

 Mr Farage said the report ‘raises serious questions about the integrity of the democratic process in predominantly Muslim areas’.

‘This election was a victory for sectarian voting and cheating,’ he posted on X. 

Kemi Badenoch said Labour had ‘created the monster of harvesting Muslim community bloc votes and yesterday that monster came back to bite them.’

Labour minister Heidi Alexander also backed calls for a probe after her party came a distant third in a former safe seat.

The Transport Secretary told Sky News: ‘People should be able to vote in a free way and not subject to any coercion, and so it would be right that the appropriate authorities, including potentially the Electoral Commission, look into those reports.’

The Electoral Commission urged anyone who suspected an offence had taken place to go to the police.

It came as Keir Starmer insisted he will ‘fight on’ today despite the humiliating result.

Nigel Farage has joined candidate Matt Goodwin campaigning in the Greater Manchester seat

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the Gorton and Denton by-election was ‘a victory for sectarian voting and cheating’

Matt Goodwin said there was ‘dangerous Muslim sectarianism’ emerging

Angela Rayner is among those demanding ‘change’ as critics insisted Sir Keir is personally culpable for the ‘worst possible’ result in Gorton & Denton.

But the PM tried to front up the anger this morning, playing down the meltdown as a ‘disappointing’ setback for a government in ‘mid-term’. He also shrugged off condemnation for blocking Andy Burnham from being the Labour candidate, and dodged on whether he will have to quit.

The Greens had never won a Parliamentary by-election – or a seat in the North – but Hannah Spencer romped home with a 4,400 majority.

In a statement issued as polls closed in Gorton and Denton at 10pm on Thursday night, Democracy Volunteers said they had seen ‘the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK’.

But Manchester City Council insisted ‘no such issues have been reported and said it was ‘extremely disappointing’ that the group waited until after the close of polls to make the claims.

But the group’s director John Ault told the Press Association that it ‘is a normal international standard not to issue a comment until after a voting has finished’ and that ‘we posed questions about family voting in several polling stations’.

Labour won Gorton and Denton at the 2024 general election with more than half the vote, but Thursday’s by-election became a three-way contest with Reform UK and the Greens finishing ahead of them.

The seat is sharply divided in ethnicity, religion and deprivation, with wards to the West having significant Muslim populations.

Mr Goodwin, the Reform candidate in the by-election, said: ‘Given the reports we are reading in UK media about family voting and sectarianism, I am deeply concerned about the extent to which the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election is a free, fair, and democratic election.’

Reform chairman David Bull insisted the party was not challenging the result, and admitted the problems did not seem big enough to have swung the outcome.

But he said it was critical to ‘stamp out’ such abuses. 

‘There are reported attempts – many attempts, some 12 per cent we believe from this independent organisation – where you saw family voting,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

‘That is where a husband and wife for example go into the polling booth together, and they cast their vote together.

‘That is illegal. It needs to be stamped out.

‘Now what I don’t understand is how did that happen in these polling stations.’

Dr Bull added: ‘Clearly there must be a huge problem here. I want to understand what is going on in those polling stations.’

Pressed on whether the issues might have affected the result, Dr Bull said: ‘If I am being candid probably not… that would seem to be sour grapes from us if I said it did.’

Asked again if he was challenging the result, Dr Bull said: ‘No, and I think it’s really important that we stand back and look at this with cool, clear heads. We’ve all been up all night.’

Labour chair Anna Turley told BBC Newsnight the reports of family voting were ‘extremely worrying and concerning’.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: ‘I think it’s important that there’s full transparency about the democratic process.

‘And if the recommendation is that there should be an inquiry or further steps then yes I’d support that.’ 

The four accredited election observers from Democracy Volunteers saw family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations they attended, the organisation said.

This was 32 cases in total, with nine cases observed in one polling station alone.

It meant that 12 per cent of the voters observed either caused or were affected by family voting.

John Ault, director of Democracy Volunteers said: ‘Today we have seen concerningly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton.

‘Based on our assessment of today’s observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10-year history of observing elections in the UK.’

‘We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent by-elections, is extremely high.

‘In the other recent Westminster parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby we saw family voting in 12 per cent of polling stations, affecting 1 per cent of voters.

‘In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68 per cent of polling stations, affecting 12 per cent of those voters observed.’

The organisation said their team attended 22 of the 45 polling stations in the constituency, spending between 30 and 45 minutes in each, and observed a sample of 545 voters casting their vote.

The team also observed cases of voters being turned away, however, in each case this was due to them not being a registered voter for Westminster elections, such as having EU citizenship, and only being allowed to vote in local elections.

Democracy Volunteers also saw a number of voters taking photographs of their ballot papers and one voter being authorised to vote despite them already having been marked as voted earlier in the day.

They informed elections staff at Manchester City Council about their findings, but the local authority said ‘no such issues’ had been reported.

A spokesperson for the acting returning officer said: ‘Polling station staff are trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters. No such issues have been reported today.

‘If Democracy Volunteers were so concerned about alleged issues, they could and should have raised them with us during polling hours so that immediate action could be taken.

‘We have operated a central by-election hub which has been rapidly responding to reported issues during the day, in liaison with the police – who had a presence at every polling station – where necessary.

‘It is extremely disappointing that Democracy Volunteers have waited until after polls have closed to make such claims.’