Hewitt denies vote rigging
Trade and Industry secretary Patricia Hewitt has denied any wrongdoing as allegations of vote rigging rage following Thursday’s local elections.
According to reports in the Mail on Sunday, Ms Hewitt allegedly visited voters’ home with two Labour party candidates and demanded that they fill in and hand over their postal votes.
It is alleged that she stood by and watched as one candidate persuaded a voter to cross their ballot paper.
However, she strenuously denies any wrongdoing. Instead she claims that the voter had asked where the Labour name was on the ballot paper, in case the voter wanted to support Labour.
She told the BBC: ‘There is nothing in that that is either in breach of the law or in breach of the Labour Party guidelines on the subject. Neither the councillors nor I did anything that either broke the law or breached the very strict Labour Party guidelines on this subject.’
She then hit out at her critics: ‘The idea that somehow it is wrong to ask people to support your candidates or support the Labour Party during an election campaign is frankly bizarre.’
The two candidates in question who were standing for Leicester City Council, Mansukhla Chohan and Manjula Sood, also deny any wrong doing.
