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Petition
Stop the erosion of our democratic rights
Our rights to campaign, vote and protest are under threat. The independence of The Electoral Commission is set to be compromised, and the power to hold Ministers to account is diminishing. Let’s prevent this government and future governments from becoming untouchable by ensuring that accountability is embedded in our nation’s structures. Let’s speak out against the government’s anti-dissent agenda and save our democracy.
The UK Government is embarking on huge and unprecedented constitutional changes which, taken all together, represent the most brazen and sweeping assault on people’s freedoms that our country has ever seen.
Strategy and Policy Statement
The Tory government proposes to include new authoritarian powers in the Elections Act which would effectively end the independence of the Electoral Commission.
The Commission is the UKs regulator of elections and political finance and should be free to hold every party to account including, perhaps especially, the party in government. The Tories are proposing to give ministers new powers to set a ‘Strategy and Policy Statement’ that the Electoral Commission would need to follow in all its work.
The independent regulator of UK elections should not be beholden to the party that happens to form the government of the day, it needs to be free to uphold the law no matter what.
Add your name and demand this authoritarian power grab is stopped.
This petition is now closed
The Labour government announced in March 2026 that they would amend the new Representation of the People Bill to remove the power for Ministers to set a Strategy and Policy Statement for the Electoral Commission.
Housing, communities and local government secretary Steve Reed said:
“We recognise the importance of maintaining confidence in the commission’s operational independence and ensuring it can carry out its statutory duties effectively, so we will repeal in full the power for government to impose a strategy and policy statement on the Electoral Commission."
Best for Britain supporters sent more than 45,000 messages to MPs and had letters published in local papers across the country which pressured the previous, Tory, government to water down their original proposals on the Electoral Commission, specifying that the Commission could deviate from the Strategy and Policy Statement imposed by Ministers in certain circumstances and prohibiting Ministers from directing the Commission on its investigatory powers.
Then in 2026 the new, Labour, government responded to the campaign by announcing it would return the independence of the Electoral Commission.
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