It is hardly as if he didn’t warn them. As Tony Blair shone his shoes before visiting the Queen to call the May 2005 general election, a judge planted a bombshell under Britain’s proud electoral system.

Richard Mawrey, QC, finally lost his temper with ministers’ arrogance as he ruled that Labour had organised a conspiracy across Birmingham to win the local elections by rigging postal votes. His trial found “fraud that would disgrace a banana republic”, while ministers were in “a state not simply of complacency but of denial”.

After The Times disclosed vote rigging in Yorkshire and the North West in the 2004 local elections, ministers dug in their heels. Chris Leslie, the Constitutional Affairs Minister, disregarded it all in the Commons as hearsay, rumour and misconceptions. The denial only ended when a Labour councillor in Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency was jailed for voterigging. Mr Blair agreed to an electoral reform Bill.

Labour switched tactics, bringing in cosmetic changes in the Electoral Administration Act. In January investigators from the Council of Europe condemned British elections as “childishly simple” to rig.

The Conservatives have exploited the new rules eagerly, using technology to trick electors into sending their ballots to Tory-controlled addresses. The seats with most postal votes in the last general election showed bigger swings to the Conservatives. This conspiracy goes a lot wider than Birmingham, Slough or Labour.

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