No sanctions over Reform's by-election rule breach

Reform UK's candidate in Thursday's Gorton and Denton by-election will not be sanctioned for breaching election rules, a judge has ruled.

At a previous High Court hearing, lawyers for Matt Goodwin and his election agent Adam Rawlinson acknowledged some election leaflets had failed to include a "statutory imprint", something which constituted "inadvertent illegal practice".

Their barrister said it was an "honest administrative error" caused by the printing firm.

Mr Justice Butcher said he was "satisfied" the pair should not be sanctioned and had taken "appropriate steps to put it right".

He added: "I am satisfied that the relevant act or omission arose from inadvertence or some other reasonable cause of a like nature, and did not arise from a want of good faith.

"The evidence satisfies me that during production, an error occurred due to a change of font.

"I am satisfied that that was neither requested nor authorised by the claimants."

The imprint was missing from a leaflet containing an open letter by a pensioner who had switched her support from Labour to Reform UK.

Under the Representation of the People Act 1983, election material must include the name and address of those promoted by the document, the promoter, and the printer.

Failure to do this is classed as an "illegal practice", which can be punishable by a fine of up to £5,000.

Adam Richardson, representing Goodwin and Rawlinson, told the court in London that the draft versions of the leaflet sent between Goodwin's team and the printers, Hardings Print Solutions, all included the imprint and were checked "in the usual way multiple times".

He continued that "for reasons known only to themselves, Hardings decided to put on a different font at the last minute".

He added: "Had (Goodwin and Rawlinson) known that was going to take place, they would have prevented it."

Richardson also said: "It should not have been done, it was not requested, it is unclear why it did happen, but as a result of that, the imprint was truncated off the bottom."

The barrister said the leaflet had been sent to about 81,000 people before the issue was raised.

In written submissions, Richardson argued his clients should not be sanctioned since the rule breach was "limited in scope, technical in nature, and had no material impact on the election".

He continued that the Act allows a judge to order that a person should not face consequences for "illegal practice" if it arose from "inadvertence or from accidental miscalculation" and "did not arise from any want of good faith".

Richardson said Hardings had "publicly admitted full responsibility for the production error", and both the Crown Prosecution Service and the acting returning officer had been made aware of the issue.

He told the court: "Without relief, they face the risk of criminal prosecution, a fine, a three-year disqualification from elective office, and, if Mr Goodwin were elected, potential invalidation of the result."

Lawyers on behalf of the acting returning officer attended the hearing, but made no representations, and no other party was represented.

The keenly contested Gorton and Denton by-election in Greater Manchester was triggered by former Labour MP Andrew Gwynne standing down on health grounds.

A full list of candidates can be found here.

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