BRADFORD Council has been encouraged to take a “good look”at a review into electoral fraud led by former leader of the local authority Sir Eric Pickles.

Tory former minister concluded that political correctness had led the Government to turn a blind eye to corruption in local government.

Mr Pickles, from Keighley, said pressure was being put on vulnerable members of some ethnic minority communities to vote according to the will of elders, especially in communities with a Pakistani or Bangladeshi background.

“There were concerns that influence and intimidation within households may not be reported, and that state institutions had turned a blind eye to such behaviour because of ‘politically correct’ over-sensitivities about ethnicity and religion,” his report said.

Mr Pickles has made more than 50 recommendations in his review, including forcing voters to present ID at polling stations to vote and banning political activists from handling postal ballot papers.

He said: “There are sometimes challenging issues over divisive community politics, but this is no excuse for failing to enforce British law and protect the integrity of our democratic process.

“It is time to take action to take on the electoral crooks and defend Britain’s free and fair elections.”

Kersten England, the returning officer for Bradford Council, said it had “welcomed the opportunity” to contribute to the report.

“We have developed practices with our partners and implemented measures that have been introduced nationally and will continue to do so.

“There have been some allegations of electoral fraud in the Bradford district over the years, although proven cases of electoral fraud are extremely rare, and we recognised early on the need within the national electoral system for increased levels of audit,” she added.

“Since that time we have contributed to reviews and have made clear our support for increased measures to counter any potential electoral fraud, including the introduction of proof of identity at polling stations which would require a change in the law.

“We will continue to work closely with the Electoral Commission and the Police as we recognise the need for further developments to build upon the integrity of our country’s democratic system.

“While closely fought contests can produce challenges, they can also demonstrate positive democratic engagement.

“We will continue to work to support democracy in fair and transparent elections, so the public can have full confidence in their outcome,” she said.

The deputy leader of the Labour-run Council, Val Slater, added: “The Returning Officer, working with the Electoral Commission and the police, is responsible for overseeing the conduct of elections. It is a crucial role, as our democracy which we hold so dear depends on free and fair elections.

“I would welcome any sensible measures if they can further strengthen that process around the country.”

Simon Cooke, the leader of the Conservative group on the Council, said: “I do think there obviously is a series of important questions raised about how elections are run, and have been mentioned by people in Bradford for a long time.

“There is a strong argument for us to look at whether or not we need to do something about impersonation and that’s something we have got to consider. I am not a huge supporter of it, that can sill be abused by people.

“I’m hoping the Council takes a good look at the report and if there are things we can put into action we should be doing so our elections are run as fairly as possible.”

“We have to take a long sensible look at it locally and we definitely should be asking questions following the report.”

The leader of the local Liberal Democrats, Jeannette Sunderland, welcomed some of the report’s findings.

“We have experience in Bradford where we would agree with many of the findings of the review, and I have serious concerns about some things that happened in the general election in the city,” she said.

“The biggest issue we have in Bradford is the manipulation of people through threats and intimidation.”

Ahead of this year’s local elections, eight complaints of election wrong-doing were passed to West Yorkshire Police by the council. Enquiries into those are continuing into the complaints received.

An Electoral Commission spokesman said: “The commission takes electoral fraud extremely seriously and takes action before each set of elections to make sure the police and electoral administrators are aware what to do if they receive any allegations. “We welcome the fact that Sir Eric Pickles has repeated so many of the Commission’s long-standing recommendations...which the UK Government must now finally respond to.”