MATTHEW GOODWIN: Why we must always ALL concern Labour’s contempt for the extraordinary voter – and its sinister plot to cling to energy for ever

One of the most disturbing trends in politics today is what happens when we ask for something that the ruling class does not want to give us.

Too often our politicians, rather than accepting what ordinary people want and setting about providing them with it, try to move the goalposts or rig the system.

We saw it after the 2016 Brexit referendum, of course, when a large chunk of this country’s elite, bolstered by unelected think-tanks and Left-leaning academics, worked overtime to try to frustrate the result: to de-legitimise Brexit, change its meaning, frame it as ‘far Right’, or force us back to the ballot box to make the ‘correct’ decision in a second vote.

We’ve seen it, too, over uncontrolled immigration. For much of the past 20 years, British people have asked their hapless leaders to reduce the numbers, only to see them implement mass migration on steroids.

And now, though few have yet noticed it, there is an even more sinister development: a scheme that would not only treat voters with contempt, but undermine our democracy itself.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about a plan by Sir Keir Starmer‘s cronies to hijack our entire electoral system so that it permanently delivers Labour majorities and shuts out the voice of the forgotten millions who are fed up with watching the country they love being ruined by those in Westminster.

The plan – laid out in detail in a new report by the Labour-aligned Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), once said to be Tony Blair‘s favourite think-tank and packed with Labour activists – is truly shocking.

Its central message? If people don’t agree with us then let’s rig the political system in order to keep Labour in power for the foreseeable future.

Sir Keir Starmer’s cronies plan to hijack our entire electoral system so that it delivers Labour majorities and shuts out the voice of the forgotten millions who are fed up with watching the country they love being ruined by those in Westminster, writes Matthew Goodwin

So what do they want to do in the months to come, exactly? Well, for a start, the radical anti-democratic Leftists who fill think-tanks such as the IPPR, most of whom have never had a proper job in their lives, want to ‘make voting easier’, by abolishing the requirement for voters to show identification.

This would effectively axe the 2021 Conservative government reforms to eliminate the kind of voter fraud that had turned some parts of our political system into a banana republic, such as in Tower Hamlets where voter fraud among minority communities, facing minimal checks, had become endemic. 

One can’t help but wonder whether the fact that voters from minority backgrounds have historically been overwhelmingly more likely than others to vote Labour has figured in their judgment.

Perhaps Labour activists are comfortable with the kind of widespread fraud and clan-based voting that we’ve seen in minority run areas, so long as it delivers Labour-led councils and Members of Parliament?

Nor does it stop there. Astonishingly, the report also suggests giving around 5 million foreign nationals the right to vote in Britain! Sorry, but do we live in a national democracy or an international democracy?

The authors, an assortment of bleeding-heart liberals bemoaning the inability of these 5 million foreigners to decide our elections, would evidently like to see immigrants and, who knows, perhaps one day even asylum seekers and illegal migrants, given the vote.

After all, some politicians are already arguing illegal migrants should be allowed to work, thereby legitimising those who have broken our laws by inviting them into the labour market.

Extending the vote to people who arrived in our country two minutes ago would tilt the deck firmly in favour of the Labour Party, much like Left-wing activists sought to tilt the deck in any potential second Brexit referendum by calling for millions of EU nationals to be allowed to vote.

Sir Keir’s 2024 election manifesto called for 16 and 17-year-olds to be given the vote.

Deputy party leader Angela Rayner has previously slammed the Tory voter ID reforms, which she said were having a ‘chilling effect on democracy’

In the IPPR report, his allies suggest going one further, with a wheeze that would have young people automatically added to the electoral register on their 16th birthday. Why? Because, once again, most young people tend to lean more Left than Right, and automatically adding another 700,000 or so to the electoral register each year would rig the system in Labour’s favour.

As usual, and as is now standard on the Left, the report is filled with endless wailing and worrying about the supposed threat from ‘populism’ – a euphemism for ‘things that a large majority of people in this country want’.

Rather than acknowledge that a desire for stronger borders, an end to the woke madness in our schools and universities, and a National Health Service that

actually puts our own citizens first, is all entirely legitimate and understandable, the Left now reframes these things as ‘populism’ to suggest they are in some way problematic, threatening, or dangerous. 

But what do the authors of the report think is behind the dreaded wave of so-called ‘populism’ that is taking hold? It is, they claim, the consequence of lower voting rates among poorer voters, which has led to disillusionment with the political system and, in turn, to support for dreaded populist ideas.

Yet rather than solving apathy among voters by appealing directly to them, the authors propose instead to extend the franchise to those who they think are more likely to support Labour.

Since coming to power in the so-called ‘Loveless Landslide’, in which it won a huge number of parliamentary seats with a relatively low share of the vote, Labour has been working overtime to shut down opposition and dissent.

In only six months, our Government has moved to dump a law that would protect free speech in universities, has said it plans to make it easier for police to record those ghastly Orwellian ‘non-crime hate incidents’, which will further muzzle free speech, and has filled the corridors of power with nearly 30 unelected quangos, task forces, and ‘advisory councils’, all of which are transferring more and more power away from ordinary people and putting it in the hands of elites.

What does all of this add up to? A Labour government that is more comfortable rigging the rules of the system than giving the people it is supposed to represent a fair chance to express their view in their own national democracy.

As for the likelihood of Labour successfully carrying out this latest democratic swindle, leader of the Commons Lucy Powell has said an Elections Bill could come in the next parliamentary session and would look at ‘other issues to make sure that all elections in this country are fair, are robust, [and] are free’.

Deputy party leader Angela Rayner has previously slammed the Tory voter ID reforms, which she said were having a ‘chilling effect on democracy’, while Sir Keir said he was thinking of reviewing them last June.

In light of the IPPR report – and with Labour MPs having served on the board of the think-tank, conducted its research and written its reports – we should be deeply worried about the lengths that our Government will go to preserve its own interests, and to ignore ours.

Matt Goodwin is a political commentator and author of the substack mattgoodwin.org