Subscriptions
Read our Monthly Magazine
And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
Conservative and Reform attempts to ban election materials published in ‘foreign’ languages were roundly defeated in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
The Government’s flagship elections bill cleared the Commons on Wednesday evening, by 411 votes to 102, with the Conservatives and Reform opposing, having seen their efforts to criminalise campaigners for using languages not ‘native’ to the British Isles rejected.
Conservative MP Paul Holmes’ amendment to introduce a ‘foreign’ language ban for campaign materials during elections was defeated by 410 votes to 105. Reform had attempted to push an even stricter amendment.
After Byline Times first reported on Reform’s language-ban efforts in July – which would have made use of Cornish, Irish, Scots, Gaelic, Manx and other ‘native’ languages illegal in election materials – the party pledged to rewrite it.
They did so, extending the permitted languages to all ‘languages native to the British Isles’, but the amendment was not called. Reform’s amendment, unlike the Conservatives’ fine-based approach, would have put campaigners in prison for using non-’native’ UK languages.
ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE
Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account.
We’re not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe.
Conservative Katie Lam launched her case for the party’s amendment by citing the recent Gorton and Denton by-election, won by the Greens’ Hannah Spencer MP. Lam said the Green Party published leaflets in Urdu telling voters that if they wanted to “give the Muslims a strong voice, give your vote to the Greens”.
The shadow communities secretary said: “It should terrify all of us that election material in our country is being produced in a foreign language and designed to drum up support among a particular religious community. Not only does this contribute to a culture of group-based grievance politics, but it makes it impossible for the vast majority of the British public to scrutinise what candidates are saying.”
Labour’s Peter Lamb hit out at Conservative Lam’s remarks, where she linked “coercion, fraud and sectarianism in our democratic process” explicitly to migration.
The Labour MP implied the comments were racially motivated, telling the House: “It was a good thing we had free hearing tests in Parliament just before recess, but I did not need one: the dog whistle across the Chamber was so loud that it was apparent to all of us.”
Hannah Spencer, the Green MP for Gorton and Denton, later challenged the factual basis of Lam’s account of her by-election, hitting out at “misinformation about family voting in the Gorton and Denton by-election, despite the fact that it was run within the law and saw me elected with an overwhelming majority, and that Greater Manchester police found no evidence of criminality.” Deputy Speaker Ghani declined to rule on the content, and Lam did not withdraw her comments.
Lib Dem Lisa Smart also replied to Lam’s remarks, saying: “I wonder whether the shadow Secretary of State sees a certain irony in attempting to legislate for linguistic purity in a language that, for over a millennium, has borrowed vocabulary ad hoc from other languages, such as Italian, Latin and French, and in a Bill that talks about elections, referendums, vetoes and manifestos.”
Lam replied: “The fact that English takes words from other languages does not mean that an English voter, or indeed any British voter, would be able to read election material in Latin.”
Don’t miss a story
Clashes in the Chamber
Labour’s Luke Akehurst also challenged the Conservatives on their own practices, asking: “Could the hon. Lady confirm to the House whether the Conservative party has ever published election leaflets in particular constituencies or wards in languages other than English?”
Lam avoided the question, saying instead: “Our proposal is clearly intended to be one rule for everybody.”
Conservative Paul Holmes intervened to add that it is Conservative policy not to produce literature in other languages during the short campaign, and that CCHQ “dismissed some of our candidates for doing so.”
And Lam insisted: “Those who engage in our democratic process must do so in the common language of public life — that much is the bare minimum.”
But Lib Dem Luke Taylor MP spoke up for Hongkongers in his seat of Sutton and Cheam: “We produced leaflets in their local language, so that those who did not have particularly strong English skills could read the information about our political party. They had travelled here, escaping the Communist regime to take part in a democratic process… I invite an intervention from the Conservative benches to explain why that communication… is such a bad thing. There are none.”
Reform and reform
Nigel Farage was absent from the debate, but Reform’s Danny Kruger made Reform’s case, claiming: “We are one country, speaking a common language, taking part in a single election concerning matters about our country… That might feel like a small thing or a petty one, but it is an important principle. How can we integrate genuinely? How can we bring our divided country together if we do not do our democracy in the same language?”
Labour MP Lizzi Collinge spoke to her experience of living in Spain: “I was in a minority among Brits, because I actually spoke Spanish.
“Some Brits are eligible to vote in local elections in Spain, and yes, they absolutely should be able to speak Spanish, but I know from experience the difference between being able to understand a language and being able to understand the political nuances, the history, and the code used in political text, which can be different.”
Reform Wrongly Claims Party’s Elections Language Ban ‘Would Not Apply To Gaelic’ – Before Saying They’ll Rewrite Plans
Nigel Farage’s party hit by outrage after Byline Times revealed its plans would mean candidates being jailed for up to six months for using Gaelic, Irish or Cornish on election leaflets
She put the figure at 0.3% of people in Britain not speaking English, and called it “yet again being used to whip up culture wars that have no basis in reality.”
Democracy minister Florence Eshalomi wrapped up the debate, saying: “Thankfully, we have now decided that Welsh and Cornish are no longer on the banned list, but it would be helpful to know exactly how far [Conservative frontbencher Katie Lam] wants to go in her war on non-native languages.”
Reform MPs including Nigel Farage voted for the defeated Conservative amendment in the end, as did three Democratic Unionist Party MPs.
The bill will introduce votes at 16, extend the list of acceptable voter IDs, and scrap the power of the Government to set the election watchdog’s strategy. It will also introduce a cap on donations from non-resident voters of £100,000 a year and implement a ‘moratorium’ on political donations made in cryptocurrencies – backdated to when it was announced in March this year.
In the same debate, the Government pledged to act to restrict big money in UK politics “as soon as possible,” following pressure from Labour MPs and progressive opposition parties to introduce a cap on domestic donations to political parties.
The bill will now go to the House of Lords where it will likely be amended further – and some peers are expected to push for a donation cap and action on proportional representation.
Got a story? Get in touch in confidence on josiah@bylinetimes.com
holding farage to account #reformUNCOVERED
While most the rest of the media seems to happy to give the handful of Reform MPs undue prominence, Byline Times is committed to tracking the activities of Nigel Farage’s party when actually in power
Contribute to our #ReformUncovered crowdfunder
Subscribers Get More from JOSIAH
Subscribers Get More from JOSIAHJosiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.
So for more from him…
