Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Reform adopt the Trump agenda on elections
Reform haven't gone that far yet, though they are not in a position to implement those sort of changes, but an amendment to the elections bill by their MPs certainly seems to be of the same ilk.
Byline Times portrays this amendement as seeking to prevent candidates from using the Irish language, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish on election leaflets, but of course any provision that restricts official literature to just English and Welsh text also undermines attempts to communicate with ethnic minorities in their own language as well, a group that is already having its voting rights affected by the requirement to present ID at polling stations.
The website says that the Reform-backed amendment would mean candidates who use languages that are not English and Welsh would face prison time. It would also impact on the Good Friday Agreement, but that has never been a problem for Reform UK:
New Clause 107 to the Representation of the People Bill – tabled by Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice and co-signed by every sitting Reform MP (including Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman) – would require all election publications material to be “in the English language or the Welsh language” only.
Publishing campaign material in any other language would become a criminal offence – punishable on summary conviction by up to six months’ imprisonment and/or a fine, and becoming an illegal practice for candidates, agents and parties.
The penalties are drafted to apply across the UK – including in Northern Ireland, where the Irish language and Ulster-Scots are protected in law and under the Good Friday Agreement designed to end the decades-long civil war.
The ban on languages other than English or Welsh would appear to criminalise election material published in Irish, used in parts of Northern Ireland, and Scottish Gaelic – including the bilingual leaflets routinely used in constituencies such as Na h-Eileanan an Iar – while exempting Welsh.
Five of six Cornish MPs (four Labour and one Lib Dem) have signed a joint statement at the bottom of this piece, exclusively published by Byline Times, condemning Reform’s proposals.
And the Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow says it is “unbelievable” that MPs from Reform UK have tabled the amendment to the Representation of the People Bill in the House of Commons.
The Scottish National Party has also come out strongly against the proposals. SNP MSP for the Highlands and Islands Maree Todd said: “This despicable anti-Scottish amendment reveals exactly what Reform really thinks of Scotland – and would threaten anyone publishing election materials in Scots or Gaelic with up to six months in prison.
“It’s not even as if this amendment was introduced by one rogue MP – it was tabled by Reform’s Deputy Leader, and co-signed by a number of their MPs.
“Reform must now do the right thing – apologise to the people of Scotland for attempting to criminalise election materials written in the Scottish languages, and immediately withdraw this outrageous amendment.”
An SNP source said “plenty of our election material would fall foul of this – lots of SNP campaign literature, especially in the Western Isles, features Gaelic, even if the materials are not written exclusively in the language, though some are.”
Lots of SNP literature also uses Scots words and phrases, with Scots identified as a distinct language under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. The UK ratified the charter in 2001.
Since there is often overlap, Reform would then presumably have to increase funding for police to identify what they deemed English versus what was Scots.
The SNP has previously offered Gaelic translations of party manifestos, something which would likely be illegal under Reform’s amendment.
Sophia Smith Galer, a language expert and author of How to Kill a Language, told Byline Times the move was “plainly discriminatory.”
“It’s discriminatory not only to the other indigenous languages of the UK affected by this — the ones that aren’t English and Welsh — but also to individuals who could be publishing political literature in any of the migrant languages that also have a home here.”
She added that Reform UK wants to “frame languages as a problem, and as part of a wider problem — multiculturalism.”
“This is part of a broader vilification of languages other than English.”
Britain is a signatory to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Smith Galer said it was the defining “instrument we have that protects and promotes language diversity, and minority languages especially… They would take a very dim view of this too.”
A law like this would be “unique in Western Europe,” the linguistics journalist noted. “It’s not something any of our peers has done.”
“What’s funny is that, to police this, you’d probably need multilingual policing. You’d actually require language skills to enforce it. I don’t know if Reform were planning on creating multilingual jobs — I wouldn’t recommend this as the way to go about it — but that’s accidentally what they’ve created.”
This is part of Reform's war on multicultural Britain, an attempt to turn the clock back to an imagined ideal of an all-white, English-speaking UK that never actually existed. Their amendment doesn't just expose their disdain for the country they are meant to represent, but also their ignorance of history and British culture.
Byline Times portrays this amendement as seeking to prevent candidates from using the Irish language, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish on election leaflets, but of course any provision that restricts official literature to just English and Welsh text also undermines attempts to communicate with ethnic minorities in their own language as well, a group that is already having its voting rights affected by the requirement to present ID at polling stations.
The website says that the Reform-backed amendment would mean candidates who use languages that are not English and Welsh would face prison time. It would also impact on the Good Friday Agreement, but that has never been a problem for Reform UK:
New Clause 107 to the Representation of the People Bill – tabled by Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice and co-signed by every sitting Reform MP (including Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman) – would require all election publications material to be “in the English language or the Welsh language” only.
Publishing campaign material in any other language would become a criminal offence – punishable on summary conviction by up to six months’ imprisonment and/or a fine, and becoming an illegal practice for candidates, agents and parties.
The penalties are drafted to apply across the UK – including in Northern Ireland, where the Irish language and Ulster-Scots are protected in law and under the Good Friday Agreement designed to end the decades-long civil war.
The ban on languages other than English or Welsh would appear to criminalise election material published in Irish, used in parts of Northern Ireland, and Scottish Gaelic – including the bilingual leaflets routinely used in constituencies such as Na h-Eileanan an Iar – while exempting Welsh.
Five of six Cornish MPs (four Labour and one Lib Dem) have signed a joint statement at the bottom of this piece, exclusively published by Byline Times, condemning Reform’s proposals.
And the Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow says it is “unbelievable” that MPs from Reform UK have tabled the amendment to the Representation of the People Bill in the House of Commons.
The Scottish National Party has also come out strongly against the proposals. SNP MSP for the Highlands and Islands Maree Todd said: “This despicable anti-Scottish amendment reveals exactly what Reform really thinks of Scotland – and would threaten anyone publishing election materials in Scots or Gaelic with up to six months in prison.
“It’s not even as if this amendment was introduced by one rogue MP – it was tabled by Reform’s Deputy Leader, and co-signed by a number of their MPs.
“Reform must now do the right thing – apologise to the people of Scotland for attempting to criminalise election materials written in the Scottish languages, and immediately withdraw this outrageous amendment.”
An SNP source said “plenty of our election material would fall foul of this – lots of SNP campaign literature, especially in the Western Isles, features Gaelic, even if the materials are not written exclusively in the language, though some are.”
Lots of SNP literature also uses Scots words and phrases, with Scots identified as a distinct language under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. The UK ratified the charter in 2001.
Since there is often overlap, Reform would then presumably have to increase funding for police to identify what they deemed English versus what was Scots.
The SNP has previously offered Gaelic translations of party manifestos, something which would likely be illegal under Reform’s amendment.
Sophia Smith Galer, a language expert and author of How to Kill a Language, told Byline Times the move was “plainly discriminatory.”
“It’s discriminatory not only to the other indigenous languages of the UK affected by this — the ones that aren’t English and Welsh — but also to individuals who could be publishing political literature in any of the migrant languages that also have a home here.”
She added that Reform UK wants to “frame languages as a problem, and as part of a wider problem — multiculturalism.”
“This is part of a broader vilification of languages other than English.”
Britain is a signatory to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Smith Galer said it was the defining “instrument we have that protects and promotes language diversity, and minority languages especially… They would take a very dim view of this too.”
A law like this would be “unique in Western Europe,” the linguistics journalist noted. “It’s not something any of our peers has done.”
“What’s funny is that, to police this, you’d probably need multilingual policing. You’d actually require language skills to enforce it. I don’t know if Reform were planning on creating multilingual jobs — I wouldn’t recommend this as the way to go about it — but that’s accidentally what they’ve created.”
This is part of Reform's war on multicultural Britain, an attempt to turn the clock back to an imagined ideal of an all-white, English-speaking UK that never actually existed. Their amendment doesn't just expose their disdain for the country they are meant to represent, but also their ignorance of history and British culture.
