Rishi Sunak says ‘considerations’ on delayed postal votes have to be handled

Rishi Sunak today insisted ‘concerns’ over delayed postal votes should be investigated.

The PM stressed that ‘every vote counts’ on July 4 after anxiety was voiced across parties about Brits being disenfranchised.

Royal Mail is adamant there is ‘no backlog’ ahead of the election, despite postal minister Kevin Hollinrake criticising preparations.

He suggested the service should have anticipated extra demand for postal votes during the summer holidays.

But in a statement a spokesman said: ‘We have no backlog of postal votes and, whilst we are not complacent, we remain confident that postal votes handed to us on time will be delivered prior to polling day.

‘Where specific concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network.

‘We would welcome a review into the timetable for future elections with all stakeholders to ensure that the system for printing and administering postal votes before they are handed to Royal Mail works as smoothly as possible.’

Touring broadcast studios this morning, health minister Maria Caulfield said Mr Hollinrake was ‘in direct contact’ with Royal Mail over the problem.

‘Kevin is investigating this urgently,’ she said. ‘I know there’s extra resources going into this to try and do a sweep of all the sorting offices and make sure they’re out there.’

However, sources in Royal Mail claimed Mr Hollinrake had not yet raised his concerns with the postal service to date.

On a visit to Banbury, Mr Sunak told broadcasters: ‘It’s right that the Royal Mail have said that they will look at any concerns where they’re raised, because obviously we want to make sure everyone can vote because this is an important election.

‘In spite of what some people want others to believe, that it’s all a foregone conclusion, every vote matters.’

Keir Starmer leader told reporters in Derbyshire: ‘They need to sort it out and get on with sorting it out because what you can’t have is people who are entitled to a vote not being able to exercise it.’

He added: ‘If the Post Office minister hasn’t met them, do it now in the next hour or two.

‘Seriously, we are running out of time, it’s not something we can do tomorrow.’

Mr Hollinrake told the Telegraph that he did not think there was any issue at play ‘other than Royal Mail being competent and fulfilling their obligations under the USO (Universal Service Obligation)’.

‘There’s a resourcing issue. They have recruited extra people and I welcome that but they’ve got to make sure they’ve got the right number of people to deliver the mail at busy times like this,’ he told the paper.

‘It’s not acceptable it’s sat in sorting offices. It needs to be delivered to people’s houses. So they need to put more people on to do that.’

Some voters north of the border have reported still not having received their ballots, and many have now left for a holiday overseas.

The electoral watchdog has said it recognises the pressures on the postal voting system due to the holiday season and will look into its administration after this election.

The Local Government Association called for a review of the already ‘overburdened’ system put under extra pressure by an ‘unprecedented increase’ in people voting by post.

SNP leader John Swinney accused the government of trying to ‘dismiss and ignore’ the concerns of voters, branding the situation a ‘democratic disgrace’.

Polling expert John Curtice suggested the delays would likely hit Tories the hardest, if they had any effect.

‘We know that postal voters tend to be somewhat older – older people are somewhat more likely to vote Conservative, so if it is going to have any particular impact then the truth is that probably, question mark, it may at the margin be more likely to which Conservatives will lose out,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.

The chief executive of the Electoral Commission suggested the system had struggled in some areas with the turnaround after Mr Sunak called a surprise summer election, but said about 6.7million postal votes had already been sent.

‘That’s better than previous elections,’ Vijay Rangarajan said.

‘At the moment the printers have been working flat out, Royal Mail have been working really flat out, so have electoral administrators to try to get postal votes out so everyone can vote.’

He said the last batches should have been delivered to people on Monday and today, but that if voters are already abroad then ‘there’s very little’ that can be done.

The regulator has said that ‘following the election, we will undertake research with voters and electoral administrators to understand their experiences at this poll. The administration of postal voting is one of the areas we will look at’.

Local councils are responsible for sending postal ballot forms to voters.

Completed postal votes must have reached councils by 10pm on polling day.

A Local Government Association spokeswoman said: ‘Councils and electoral staff across the country have been doing their utmost to ensure the smooth running of this election and that people can vote.’

They added: ‘We are aware of reports of incidents where delays have happened. The postal vote system could benefit from review and more could be done to support Royal Mail and printers to be ready to deliver elections.’