A LEADING councillor in Burnley has backed calls to create a local voting taskforce after the borough’s MP claimed there was ‘reports of wholesale fraud on an industrial scale’ at recent elections.

Liberal Democrat MP Gordon Birtwistle has provoked fury after linking election turnout rises in Daneshouse with Stoneyholme and Queensgate with Labour victories.

His coalition colleague, Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson, went on to claim that some female Asian voters in the area were being influenced into ‘family voting’, with the postal voting system being exploited.

Coun Shah Hussain, new leisure cabinet member, said: “Gordon Birtwistle has a cheek – this is from a party where there have been two councillors and an electoral agent jailed for fraud.

“I would be happy to sit down in a cross-party working group to address this issue because it needs to be dealt with.”

Coun Hussain said that during campaigning he has always been careful to speak to all registered voters on the doorstep – and not just the ‘head of the household’.

Coun Wajid Hussain, who also represents Daneshouse with Stoneyholme, added: “This is the politics of fear because these MPs are worried by Boundary Commission changes.

“Postal voting has increased turnout to around 60 per cent in some wards and we need to be discussing how we can encourage people to exercise their right to vote.

"This is just a smokescreen, by the MPs, because of their own positions.”

And Coun Julie Cooper, Labour group leader, said: “If Gordon Birtwistle has any evidence of ‘wholesale fraud on an industrial scale’ then we need to see his proof. This does seem like sour grapes.”

Mr Birtwistle said he raised the issue because: “We need an end to postal voting on demand.”

The electoral reform bill currently going through parliament aims to tackle voter fraud.

One of the main ideas is to move to individual voter registration, because ministers say there are no systematic checks on the information householders provide in their annual form under current arrangements.

They say, as such, the current system is vulnerable to abuse.