Electoral Campaigns in UK Law

If a person is found guilty of a corrupt practice under section 115 he is liable to be prosecuted on indictment. Furthermore he may be the subject of severe electoral disqualifications under section 160(4). Mr. Tolson submits that the civil standard of proof should obtain before an electoral court otherwise elections which should be set aside may stand on the grounds that a corrupt practice had not been proved to the necessary degree of certainty.

An example discussed in oral argument which provides a good means of testing these conclusions is a case involving spending for referendum purposes on travel and accommodation. Suppose that during a referendum campaign volunteers affiliated with a particular campaign organisation (which is a permitted participant) travel from London to Birmingham by rail to attend a public meeting and stay in a hotel overnight.

Mr Gough was directly involved in the decision to make the application under rule 47. Mr Field told him that he agreed to the application being made if it could properly be done. The question which Mr Gough had to decide was whether, in the circumstances which had arisen, it was permissible to apply under rule 47. It was incumbent upon Mr Gough, who had been asked to advise about the feasibility of using rule 47, to address all these questions.

Electoral law has always drawn the concept of agency very widely. In the days when those standing for election (particularly to Parliament) would be members of the upper classes, it was not supposed that they would do their own electioneering. It was taken for granted that others would carry out the hard work of persuading voters. In an era before political parties were professionally organised, the candidate would collect a body of dedicated supporters who would campaign on his behalf.

Generally speaking, public bodies should be kept to their promises. A public body should not be permitted to resile from a legitimate expectation which it has created in the minds of those members of the public to whom the undertaking which gave rise to the expectation was addressed, or who were affected by the practice which confirmed that expectation, and from which it would be an abuse of the process to resile.

2. If the election was so conducted that it was substantially in accordance with the law as to elections, it is not vitiated by a breach of the rules or a mistake at the polls - provided that it did not affect the result of the election. That is shown by the Islington case where fourteen ballot papers were issued after 8 p.m.

The reality is that Councillors must be trusted to abide by the rules which the law lays down, namely that, whatever their views, they must approach their decision-making with an open mind in the sense that they must have regard to all material considerations and be prepared to change their views if persuaded that they should.