Paul Holmes has declared that British voters “need transparency” amid plans to ban foreign languages being used in election campaign literature.Speaking to GB News, the Shadow Housing and Local Government Minister demanded a “level playing field” for voting in future elections.Mr Holmes had exclusively revealed the details of his tabled amendment with GB News, where he warned of a “worrying rise in sectarian and separatist sentiment in our country”.Detailing the Representation of the People Bill, the Tory MP said the plan will make changes to “voting age” as well as language used in campaigns.
TRENDING
Stories
Videos
Your Say
Mr Holmes explained: “With the rise of separatism that we’ve seen over the last few months and the Gorton and Denton by-election, where we saw the use of Urdu, essentially saying ‘give the Labour Party a punishing’ because of their views on Gaza, we think that the transparency should be for every voter and not a certain section of community.”And so we’re proposing to bring in an English only digital and physical election literature law, which would mean that every voter gets the right to see what every party is saying on their election leaflets, and they can make a decision at the ballot box when they go and vote.”Challenged by host Miriam Cates, she pressed Mr Holmes on how “transparent” a ban would be if “a voter in a constituency can’t speak English and can only speak Urdu”.He argued: “Well, the Government has too much of a focus on translation and not enough focus on actually teaching people to speak English. “The Conservative Party under Kemi Badenoch has long said that we have to have integration and we have to put more money into making sure that people are learning English. “If you want to have the ability to vote in our democratic process, then you should be able to speak English.”Recalling the Green campaign in Gorton and Denton, Mr Holmes told GB News that it was “unfair” for English-speaking Britons to receive literature through their door that was “only in Urdu”.He explained: “It’s not fair on people who speak English to have literature put through their doors in Urdu, as we saw by the Green Party in Gordon and Denton. Those people are not able to read those leaflets either. LATEST DEVELOPMENTSCalls for election campaigning in foreign languages to be BANNED amid ‘worrying’ sectarianism riseSuella Braverman demands FA drop ‘racist’ DEI target as Reform MP calls policy ‘utter woke nonsense’Suella Braverman swipes at Kemi Badenoch’s ‘stupid personal attack’ in fiery IRGC row”So we need to have a level playing field and we think this is a proportionate response to allow everybody to have an equal engagement in the political process.”Questioned on whether he believes the amendment will be supported by other Parliamentary parties, the Tory MP said he “doubts the Green Party will back it”.He swiped: “I doubt the Greens will back this, they were the ones that were guilty of it, saying that Labour should be punished with a picture of Keir Starmer – it’s not a way that you campaign. So I doubt they will, but we will talk to any party.”I’m talking to the liberals and the Government on every amendment that we’ve put forward, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t back it because the Labour Government have a track record in this. “I don’t expect miracles, but we’ll be working on it as hard as we possibly can.”Questioned on his view of “family voting” following accusations at the Gorton and Denton by-election, Mr Holmes criticised the Government for not “wanting to take further action” in toughening measures against it.He told GB News: “In Gorton there was evidence and there were reports raised about families going into a polling station, and the head of that family, usually men, telling their wives and their children how they should vote in front of the election polling staff. “That’s illegal, and when we’ve put pressure on the Government and when we’ve spoken about that, the Government doesn’t want to take any further action to strengthen the guidance or tell election returning officers that they have the right to enforce the non-family voting rules.”He concluded: “It’s about everybody having that equal right. Physical leaflets should be in English or an official language of the British Isles, and not in every other language that might be suited to those local communities.”
Our Standards:
The GB News Editorial Charter
