Revealed: The full scale of illegal 'family voting' at the Birmingham polls - as election watchdog is urged to investigate

By MARTIN BECKFORD, POLICY EDITOR and CAMERON ROY, DATA JOURNALIST Published: 22:50, 21 August 2026 | Updated: 22:54, 21 August 2026 The elections watchdog has been urged to investigate after the country's biggest town hall admitted the full scale of illegal 'family voting'. Birmingham City Council revealed staff witnessed attempts to breach the secret ballot at 50 polling stations in May's local elections. A list of incidents obtained by the Daily Mail showed presiding officers repeatedly had to tell voters it is against the law to enter a booth with someone else and tell them which candidate to pick - and received abuse in return. In the city's Jewellery Quarter, voters 'became aggressive' with an officer after being told not to talk to each other in polling booths. A man in Balsall Heath was said to be 'trying continuously' to 'influence voters' - and when stopped he accused officials of fraud. The presiding officer said he had been 'so stressed and under pressure' from the man, while another family 'was rude'. In another part of the inner-city area, a man was witnessed trying to 'influence voting' through 'Islamic gestures, blinking eyes, hand signals'. A woman nearby 'was aggressive' when told not to talk or show her vote. Elsewhere a father was seen holding 'all the poll cards' for his relatives and 'was advising' each one on how to vote'. The presiding officer in Garretts Green told them to go into separate booths but conceded: 'It was clear that votes were being influenced.' Staff at 50 polling stations across Birmingham City Council noted instances of 'family voting', where individuals enter polling booths together, instruct relatives on how to vote, or attempt to communicate inside the booth Reform UK candidates Chris Steele and Rajbir Singh celebrate after being elected during the count for the Birmingham Council 2026 local elections In Handsworth, at the centre of a row over segregation last year, voters were said to 'just switch language' when told to 'stop collaborating'.  The presiding officer wrote in a report: 'Conferring, did not listen when asked to stop...changed language when advised to vote independently.' And in Hall Green South, one woman 'tried several times to talk to husband, showing him who to vote [sic]'. She then tried to 'point where to vote', forcing the presiding officer to 'place my arm out to stop her'.  In Quinton, a woman went into the booth with her daughter and told staff 'she wanted to make sure' she 'voted correctly'. One presiding officer said that when he told husbands and wives that talking in booths was a criminal offence, most men were apologetic and it was 'mainly the women who took umbrage'. This newspaper obtained the full list under freedom of information after the council initially provided only a brief summary. On Friday, Tory peer and leading pollster Lord Hayward, who introduced the 2023 law that makes it an offence to attempt to influence voting in polling booths, said: 'I hope the Electoral Commission will acknowledge that attempts at breaching the secret ballot clearly remain a problem and needs to be investigated. 'I do not believe this is the only council where this was a problem and hope the Commission will identify where else this arose and whether the polling station officers were as active as they were in Birmingham.' It comes after a row over family voting at the Gorton and Denton by-election this year. Observers saw 'extremely high' levels but Greater Manchester Police said it had found 'no evidence'. Democracy Volunteers observers said they saw 291 potential breaches of the secret ballot in the UK at the May elections. The Electoral Commission said: 'We provide guidance and support... to help protect the integrity of elections, and work with police to ensure allegations of electoral abuse and intimidation are treated seriously.  'We are gathering evidence on the... May 2026 elections and will publish our findings in the coming weeks.' A Birmingham City Council spokesman said last night: 'The Returning Officer has passed on all available observations of potential family voting to the police, and we understand the police have decided to take no further action.' West Midlands Police were approached for comment.