Legal move threatens to put off poll

THE deputy leader of Britain’s largest local authority is launching a legal process that could see the General Election postponed until more safeguards are in place to prevent postal vote fraud.

John Hemming, Liberal Democrat leader on Birmingham City Council, is seeking a judicial review into electoral procedures.

Mr Hemming, who is prospective Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Birmingham Yardley, said he had the backing of his party and was taking action because of the "very real likelihood" dozens of inner city constituencies nationwide would be corrupted by vote rigging.

He said: "The General Election will be wide open to fraud if steps are not taken immediately to tighten postal vote procedures."

The move follows the decision by election commissioner Richard Mawrey QC to sack six Birmingham Labour councillors after a tribunal heard of widespread vote-rigging.

Labour today tried to fan the flames of the Howard Flight affair after the Tories selected

Nick Herbert, former head of Reform, to place Mr Flight after he was sacked for implying his party had not been honest about spending plans.

Labour immediately seized on an article written by Mr Herbert in The Spectator in 2002, which said: "The whisper is that there is a top-secret, extremely clever strategy afoot: go along with spending rises now, but return to a tax-cutting agenda when - if - the party is re-elected".

The Tories insisted the comments had been taken "grossly out of context".