Roger Godsiff

Labour Party | Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath

Birmingham MP welcomes ruling of Electoral Court

Speaking today after the decision by the Election Court to annul the elections in the Bordesley Green ward and Aston ward, Roger Godsiff, the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, within which the majority of the Bordesley Green ward is sited, expressed support for the decision of the Electoral Court.

‘The electoral system is the cornerstone of our democracy’ said Roger Godsiff ‘and it was important that the Electoral Court both investigated thoroughly the complaints made about what happened in the local elections in parts of central Birmingham and also held to account those had benefited from the malpractices.’  However, Roger Godsiff went onto say that: ‘The undermining of the electoral system in Birmingham was not confined to specific individuals or political parties but took place because of the totally unregulated distribution of postal vote applications in the mistaken belief that this would boost the turnout.’ 

As the MP who first raised the issue of what had gone on in central Birmingham in Parliament in a debate in the HOC on the 22nd June Roger Godsiff said ‘participation in public elections ought to be civic duty and for a Government, that quite rightly, places civic responsibility high on its agenda I find it regrettable that they are not prepared to grasp the nettle and to introduce mandatory voting in the United Kingdom as applies in Australia.  Mandatory voting does not mean that an individual is forced to vote for a particular candidate but it does mean that an individual has to make the effort of obtaining a ballot paper and it is then entirely up to them as to what they choose to do with it.  Personally I would have no objection whatsoever to a space being provided on the ballot paper to allow electors to record a ‘none of them’ vote or to actually write in the name of somebody else who they would wish to represent them.  The important thing is that an individual participates in a public election and as these only take place once of twice a year I do not think this is a high price to impose on people in order for them to get the benefits of being able to live within a democratic society’.

Turning again to what happened in central Birmingham Roger Godsiff said ‘by allowing unrestricted and unregulated applications for postal votes it turned postal voting into a political currency and this must never be allowed to happen again.  The Electoral Court has made its decision and I very much hope that the Government will give urgent consideration to this matter and take steps to ensure that what went on central Birmingham in the Council elections is never again repeated in any public election in the United Kingdom.’