Two years ago a High Court judge delivered a devastating verdict on Britain’s postal voting system. Finding six Labour councillors in Birmingham guilty of “evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic”, Richard Mawrey QC condemned a postal voting system that was “open to fraud and any would-be political fraudster knows that”.

Since then some steps have been taken to clamp down on postal voting abuses. A system of ensuring votes are genuine by matching signatures on ballot papers to postal voting applications is in place. In many cases, however, election officers do not have the software to run the signature checks. And if the original application was fraudulent, such checks offer no reassurance.

All three main parties, meanwhile, have signed up to the Electoral Commission’s code of conduct. This means candidates and canvassers will not handle or help voters complete their postal ballot papers, that they encourage voters to post ballot papers themselves and if asked to take a completed ballot paper, to make sure the voter has sealed it first. They must also ensure voters complete ballot papers in secret, and not solicit completed postal ballot papers from electors.

Today we report that the Labour party in Leeds has driven an articulated lorry through this code in a desperate attempt to gain power on the city council. An undercover reporter posing as a student activist was part of a team told by the leader of the Labour group on the council, Keith Wakefield, and a fellow Labour politician, to collect postal votes in two key wards, and if necessary “help” voters fill in the forms. The other councillor, Graham Hyde, who worked in the Commons for George Mudie, the former Labour deputy chief whip, warned the canvassers not to get caught with any postal voting forms on them.

Every aspect of the code, in other words, was breached. As David Crompton, assistant chief constable of West Yorkshire, put it when told of Labour’s actions: “This is extremely sharp practice and a clear breach of the guidelines. We will now be looking at this carefully to determine whether a crime has been committed.” Whatever the police do, the Labour party should suspend the councillors involved.

Labour is desperate to get the vote out because the party is heading for humiliation this week. Tony Blair, the party’s great election winner, will end on the lowest note. An analysis by professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University suggests Labour is heading for just 24% of the vote, lower than even that spectacular election loser Michael Foot achieved in the early 1980s when Labour was torn apart by the defection of the Gang of Four to the new Social Democratic party. Gordon Brown is said to be deeply gloomy; so would anybody be on the point of being handed the keys to a house whose foundations are collapsing.

Compare this with France, where in the first round of their elections last Sunday there was a turnout of 85%. This week’s local elections will see a turnout of under 40%. Labour’s great experiment with devolution, which threatens to break up the United Kingdom, has not enthused voters. The last time the Welsh voted in an assembly election in 2003 only 38% did so. Scotland did better but not by much; its turnout was 49%.

Voters are disenchanted with national politics; fed up with Labour but so far unconvinced by David Cameron’s makeover of the Tories. What do they see when they look at local government? Brown has just shelved a report he commissioned from Sir Michael Lyons, which looked at its future role, functions and funding. When they look at their town halls, voters see high council tax bills and a level of government that does not even deliver the most basic level of service such as emptying the bins each week. Britain’s political malaise goes deep. Bending and breaking the rules on postal voting undermines democracy and will only add to that malaise.