A Liberal Democrat councillor and parliamentary candidate has been refused permission to launch a High Court challenge over the security of postal votes in the general election.

John Hemming, Birmingham City Council deputy leader who is standing for Parliament in the marginal Labour constituency of Birmingham Yardley, sought permission to apply for judicial review because he believed the arrangements are wide open to fraud.

Mr Hemming had asked for permission to seek a declaration that voting regulations were "incompatible" with the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that elections must ensure "the free expression of the will of the people".

He argued that the election was "virtually certain" to result in "very serious fraud" because of insufficient safeguards for postal voting.

But Mr Justice Collins said that the proceedings were "entirely premature". He said it was not enough to make general allegations about fear of fraud.

If Mr Hemming fails to be elected as an MP and had reason to believe fraud had been involved, there were "remedies", the judge said.

However, the judge said that it was accepted there were insufficient safeguards for postal voting and hoped that talks taking place today could provide them.

Representatives from the Electoral Commission, Royal Mail, Association of Chief Police Officers and returning officers are meeting in Whitehall today to discuss the threat of ballot-rigging in the May 5 election.

Mr Justice Collins said there would be "tremendous pressure" on whichever party won the election to take action to tighten the regulations, but that it was a matter for politicians and not the courts.

After the decision, Mr Hemming said it was up to the Government to agree with the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives on measures to prevent fraud.

"This is not an issue to give up just because we have lost on a technicality on one day. There is an election on May 5 and we want to make sure that fraud is minimised on that day," he said. "We need to keep making the case about electoral fraud and bring it under control so we have a free and fair election."

The judge ordered Mr Hemming to pay £4,000 towards the Government’s costs in defending the case.

He launched the legal challenge following an elections court hearing in Birmingham, highlighted in The Times, that removed six Labour councillors from office over widespread and systematic abuse of the postal voting system.

The Election commissioner, Richard Mawrey, QC, said that what had happened "would disgrace a banana republic" and warned that the postal voting system was wide open to fraud.

Today Mr Justice Collins referred to the commissioner’s "somewhat flowery" language, but said there was no question that there had been serious fraud in the Birmingham area.

Jerry Hayes, Mr Hemming’s lawyer, said requests for postal voting were up by 500 per cent up in marginal seats and that election fraud would continue if action was not taken. "Every voter is at risk because every voter could have their votes stolen," he warned.

A former Conservative MP for Harlow, Essex, Mr Hayes conceded that it was too late to do anything about the pending election, but said action had to be taken to stop future fraud.

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