On Friday, a West Midlands Labour politician lost a High Court case over allegations of bribery. Labour candidate Muhammed Afzal brought a petition to challenge the Liberal Democrats’ victory in the 2022 May elections. The basis of his claim was that the LibDems falsely claimed Labour had bribed voters with branded packs of dates. Unfortunately for Muhammed, the Liberal Democrats were able to produce video evidence of apparent electoral law breaking… 

In his ruling, Judge Richard Foster gave permission for the petition’s withdrawal, saying “the effect of this judgment will be that the Respondents will have been vindicated”. He also elaborated on the potential for further legal action to take place:

“The Director of Public Prosecutions is a party to these proceedings, and although he has taken no part in them he has been served with all relevant material at each stage and I am able to arrange for this judgment to be referred to him which I shall do. He is under a statutory duty by virtue of section 181 (1) of RPA “to make such inquiries and institute such prosecutions as the circumstances of the case appear to him to require”. Additionally, it is open to any party to refer the matter to West Midlands Police directly who will not hitherto have seen the Respondents’ evidence.”

The judge added “there is conclusive evidence that indeed [Cllr Afzal] and his supporters did supply electors with packets of dates containing Labour Party stickers on a widespread basis during the election campaign”. Co-conspirators can trust Guido will keep you up to dates if the DPP goes ahead with a prosecution…