UK Election Bulletin, June 20th

13 min readJun 20, 2024

**Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens and the SNP have all said they would make misogyny a hate crime during an election debate on women’s safety (Fawcett Society)**

Thursday 20th June 2024 — Two weeks until Election Day

The UK General Election is upon us. Over the next few weeks the UK Democracy Network we’ll be bringing you the latest news, gossip, resources and actionable information that can help you and your organisation deliver impact this election. Brought to you by James Moulding and Max Roche of the UK Democracy Network.

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Key Election Resources

Election Tech Handbook
Crowdsourced resources for technologists building things for the upcoming UK general election, run by Newspeak House.

Election Hackspace
The London College of Political Technology, Newspeak House, has opened its doors from now until the election for all those working across the election. Drop in and co-work from 10am till 7.30pm every day.

Democracy Classroom
Key resources include posters, template emails, a handbook for employers, manifestos and everything you need to engage young people in the election.

Fix The Glitch 3.0 Election Toolkit

The Glitch team created a toolkit and facilitation guide to combat digital misogynoir during election periods as part of their Be Safe Online campaign.

RNIB resource on how to campaign accessibly

The Royal National Institute of Blind People want to make this General Election the most accessible election campaign ever — download their guide to accessible campaign communications now

Regular Election Coordination Meetings

Democracy Network & Democracy Classroom Joint Emergency Election Meetups — Every Monday at 2pm, usually for 30mins, now until the week after the election — Sign up now or contact Jason at The Politics Project

Democracy Network Campaign Meetings — Weekly meetings for organisations campaigning during the GE — Email Amna Ahmad

National Voter Registration Alliance Special Election Edition Meeting — Next meeting 25th June 2024 2–3.30pm (Zoom) — Email Fope Ajanaku at Operation Black Vote to sign up

Democracy Group Cymru Emergency Election Meetings — Email Jason at The Politics Project

Election Comms Channels

Democracy Network WhatsApp Community — Join here

Democracy Club Slack — Join here

Election Tech WhatsApp Community — Join here

Have we missed anything? Email james@involve.org.uk

Latest election news and updates this week

Help us share news and updates across the democracy sector this election

Please visit our live Election Check-In document now and spend a few minutes popping in your latest updates, upcoming events, hiring jobs, grant opportunities, election activities, gossip and more — and the Democracy Network team will work to share this amongst the wider sector — Add your updates now.

Democracy Drinks: Election Edition special event, tonight 20th June in London

It’s not too late to sign up for our special Democracy Drink: Election Edition event at the Wellcome Collection. This is a joint event with The Civic Power Fund and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, and an opportunity for you to both share your work, updates and what you’ve achieved so far this election — and also an opportunity to let your hair down for a night with free drinks and nibbles.

Join the All-Island Better Democracy Network for their first coworking day, today in Belfast!

The UK Democracy Network’s sister organisation, the All-Island Better Democracy Network, has a day of networking and workshops today, including democracy drinks, today — Thursday 20 June — join them now.

Join the UK General Election Debrief, Monday 8th July 2pm

Join the Democracy Network for a post-election debrief Zoom. Share your organisation and election projects election learnings and experiences with fellow democracy organisations and the wider community — Register now.

Highest number of people register to vote on a single day ever, say Politics UK

A new record number of 629,875 people registered to vote on June 18th, ahead of the voter registration deadline — the highest amount in a single day ever, according to Politics UK.

Can you help circulate Disability Policy Centre’s voter accessibility survey

With the close of voter registration, Chloe Schendel-Wilson and the team at the Disability Policy Centre want to better understand how disabled people and people with learning difficulties found the experience and process of registering to vote. Please consider sharing their survey form, or share via X.

Fawcett Society announce big win: Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and SNP would make misogyny a hate crime

Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens and the SNP have all said they would make misogyny a hate crime during an election debate on women’s safety. In 2021, the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer led to renewed efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, with campaigners arguing misogyny is one of the ‘root causes’. See here for the Fawcett Society’s tweet sharing the news.

Electoral Reform Society call for AVR as more than 5 million missing from voter rolls

Despite record numbers registering to vote this week, there still remains approximately 5 million people missing from voter rolls following the close of the registration deadline. In response, Electoral Reform Society are arguing the UK should follow Wales in introducing Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) at the earliest opportunity. Legislation on AVR is currently proceeding through the Senedd, see here for more information on the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Bill and a breakdown of the Bill.

Can I Vote? helps voters check their eligibility to vote at the general election

It’s not just UK citizens who can vote in UK elections — people from 56 Commonwealth Countries may also be eligible to vote. Can I Vote? a new online resource from Citizens UK, Just Register and Migrant Democracy Project allows individuals to check on their eligibility so no one misses their chance to vote.

Democracy Classroom highlight voter registration on BBC news & radio

The Democracy Classroom team have published their hustings map, covering 130 hustings across the UK. They are running four Youth Hustings in Wales and have also collated all of the manifestoes and Party Political Broadcasts in one place. Ian Pope, The Politics Project Head of Programmes made it onto BBC Radio Wales yesterday to highlight the voter registration deadline, whilst Harriet Andrews, their Director, made it onto Radio 5Live.

My Life My Say’s Give An X campaign help register hundreds of thousands of young people

Together with organisations across the democracy sector, My Life My Say’s Give An X coalition helped register record numbers of young people, working with more than 300 organisations and media partners across the UK to saturate social media feeds, and were featured on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and more… swiping right to register to vote on Tinder anyone?

Democracy Network Coalition Campaign goes live

Put People First, the Democracy Network coalition campaign, went live this week. The campaign has three strands — Include Everyone, Clean Up Politics and Devolution. The campaign partners are Campaigning Members of the Democracy Network and each strand is led by a partner organisation. We will soon have a website where you can find our key messages but in the meantime, please check the Democracy Network X and LinkedIn pages for the latest news — or join as a Campaigning Member now.

The Democracy Network Campaigns team are also considering convening a ‘Democracy Policy Summit’ for late July, with the aim of bringing together those across the DN campaign coalition to strategise and work together in the post-election period.

UpVote engaging employers, launching new ‘voter tripling’ app

Rebecca Baron and the UpVote team are primarily working with brands, musicians, influencers etc to get people to register to vote — and now — to turn up and vote. With voter registration in the back mirror, they’re now turning to ‘Time to Vote’ an initiative similar to that run in the USA, consisting of getting employees to give employees time off to vote on election day. Patagonia and Oatly are hosting a roundtable event tomorrow, June 20th about it — Are you an employer? Email Rebecca for the details.

The other initiative is Triple the Vote, again a successful initiative used by organisations around the world, UpVote will launch a new text prompt tool that messages three friends to encourage them to get out and vote.

Good Law Project take aim aim at digital dark arts this election

Good Law Project’s new campaign Stop Targeting Me! highlights political parties’ dodgy use of data this election. The campaign calls upon the main UK parties to stop using personal data in their election campaigns — find out more and get involved.

Patchwork Foundation engaging underrepresented communities during the election

Patchwork’s #GetInvolved programme aims to engage the UK’s underrepresented communities in the lead up to the election. If you know people looking for ways to get more involved in the election but don’t know where to start, their #GetInvolved programme is aimed at those wanting to build their engagement with mainstream politics. Their sessions are tailored towards those with little to no prior experience or knowledge of politics — check it out now.

They are also working to highlight the UK’s community leaders, through their Community Champions Award, alongside their MP of the Year Award. Find out more.

Association for Citizenship Teaching need hustings videos, running impartiality workshops

Zoe Baker, Head of Education and Professional Development at the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT), is looking for any videos of hustings, to be used in education resources and citizenship teaching, just 30 seconds to a minute’s footage is enough. ACT have been running political impartiality workshops for school leaders, teachers and youth workers, with a focus on sharing practical tools to help educators engage with young people in this election.

Democracy is for everyone yet millions have no say in who represents them, say Migrant Democracy Project

Josiah Mortimer of the Byline Times spoke with the Migrant Democracy Project about the disparity of voting rights in the UK and their current work to correct this, highlighting how many non-British workers living in the UK feel deliberately politically excluded and disenfranchised.

Independent Social Research Foundation hold event tonight on disability & political representation

Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) to host event book launch event today from 5–6.30pm online and in London, the event features discussion with the authors of a new treatise exploring how and why representative politics are failing disabled people — register now or share via X.

mySociety focus on post-election period

With their various tools running in the background for campaigners and activists, such as the Local Intelligence Hub, TheyWorkForYou, etc — mySociety have turned their gaze to after the election, creating new briefing packs for the new MPs. The packs will provide key information on their electorates and constituents — and you can help too! They are looking for data that is organised and categorised by the new constituency maps. Anyone that can help with this would be appreciated and should reach out to Julia via Julia@mysociety.org

Newspeak House to host London election results watch party

The London College of Political Technology, Newspeak House, who are hosting the ongoing 7 day a week election hackspace until the 5th July, are topping off their election activities and convening efforts with a non-partisan (political party workers/canvassers welcome) election results watch party from 8pm until late in Shoreditch, London — Sign up now.

Votes at 16 Northern Ireland put pressure on NI Executive to legislate Votes at 16

Emily Crudden McIlhatton of Politics in Action, working with the Votes at 16 NI team, report that the timing of the General Election announcement threw their plans somewhat, they are hoping to use the election opportunities to put pressure on the Northern Irish political parties to ask for the powers to be devolved so that the NI Executive can legislate on Votes at 16, rather than waiting on Labour to legislate at a UK wide level — sign and share their petition now.

Northern Ireland Youth Forum hustings event, June 17th in Belfast

Are you based in Belfast or work with youth organisations in NI? The upcoming NIYF hustings offers young people in NI the opportunity to engage with those running for election — Register now or check out the full UK hustings listings gathered by the Democracy Classroom team, supported by Democracy Club.

Generation Rent engage in final big push on voter registration

The team at Generation Rent, an organisation focused on tackling unfair evictions and pushing for a better deal for private renters, have been working to sign up their supporters — and young voters in particular — and get them registered to vote ahead of yesterday’s deadline.

Give Food working to raise UK over reliance on emergency food banks with candidates

Jason Cartwight at Give Food has built a tool to contact MP candidates in each constituency as part of their campaign to ensure new MPs are aware of the scale of the problem of people relying on emergency food parcels.

Sense About Science ask party leaders to pledge on evidence based policy

David Schley and the team at Sense About Science are asking political parties to commit to following the rules on giving the public the evidence behind their policies. The campaign follows a recent review that showed the damage to public trust and confidence when government departments try to bury their findings or when ministers fail to share their rationale for decisions. The Liberal Democrats, SNP, Plaid and Green Party have signed the pledge. If you think you can help, or have useful political contact / able to make an intro — contact David Schley.

More in Common & UCL Policy Lab explore role of respect at upcoming election in new report

More in Common and the UCL Policy Lab have published the first in a series of briefing papers on the importance that voters place on politicians respecting them in the lead up to the general election. The research reveals that one of the biggest drivers of those who have switched from Conservative to Labour since 2019 is a feeling that Keir Starmer and Labour are more likely to ‘respect voters like them’.

Democracy Classroom and Operation Black Vote publish free posters encouraging voter participation

Democracy Classroom has created a number of posters and flyers which can be downloaded, printed out and used to encourage young people to vote. Operation Black Vote has also created a number of posters designed to encourage marginalised communities to vote in the election.

AI voice cloning is threatening electoral integrity, says new report

A new report from The Centre For Countering Digital Hate, Attack of the Voice Clones, explores how AI can be manipulated to create convincing fakes of high profile politicians’ voices. Six leading generative AI audio tools complied with CCDH researchers’ prompts to produce false statements mimicking the voices of high-profile political figures in 193 of the 240 test runs (80%).

Large numbers of brits are still misinformed about voter ID, according to new poll

Polling for the Byline Supplement reveals that more than 4 in 10 (44%) of adults in Britain believe that a polling card alone will allow them to vote at the upcoming election. The research shows that age has a large determining factor, with 62% under the age of 40 wrongly assuming a polling card will suffice, compared to just 32% above the age of 40.

PolicyMogul launch manifesto comparison tool

PolicyMogul has launched a free manifesto comparison tool which allows you to see where the main parties stand on any issue of interest. A comparison of the various parties’ policies on ‘elections’ brings up a lot of interesting results!

Full Fact check claims made in party manifestos

Full Fact has been working hard in recent weeks to fact check all the live TV debates and the manifestos of major parties. They’ve checked the Labour manifesto, Conservative manifesto, Lib Dem manifesto, Green manifesto and Plaid Cymru manifesto for signs of misleading claims.

The Constitution Unit to host conference on post-election constitutional reform priorities

The next government will have a number of constitutional reforms to consider, but which are the most pressing and most easily implemented? On the 24th and 25th of June, The Constitution Unit is hosting an online conference to debate these questions with sessions running on parliamentary standards, House of Lords reform, devolution in England, and more.

Manifestoes at a glance

Conservative manifesto is light on pledges to improve democracy, says Electoral Reform Society

The Tory manifesto is light on commitments to improve our democracy, according to analysis by the Electoral Reform Society. Whilst they commend the plans to devolve more power to communities, ERS found little further evidence in the manifesto for reform. ERS welcomed Labour’s proposals, to extend the voting age to 16 and 17 year olds, to reform the House of Lords and to address the inconsistencies around Voter ID, but called on them to uphold their commitment to reforming First Past the Post.

SNP manifesto pledges to deliver independence from the United Kingdom

The SNP manifesto commits to devolving employment rights to the devolved nations, protect the right to strike, reverse Brexit, secede from the Union via a new referendum, repeat the Internal Market Act, support the abolition of the House of Lords, transition to a new proportional voting system, extend voting rights to 16 & 17 year olds, as well as those with refugee status and international students. They also pledge to scrap voter ID, defend the ECHR and enhance LGBTI rights.

Constitution Unit undertake blog series on the manifestoes and what they mean for public participation in 2024

For more indepth analysis of the various parties pledges on democracy and constitutional matters, please see Alan Renwick’s blog series from the UCL Constitution Unit on this here.

Beyond the election

Demos’ Collaborative Democracy Network hosting new discussion with Taiwan’s Audrey Tang

Demos’ next Collaborative Democracy Network event will feature Taiwanese politician and free software programmer Audrey Tang, chief architect of Taiwan’s digital democracy policies, who served as the first Minister of Digital Affairs of Taiwan from August 2022 to May 2024 — during the session they will explore the intersection of technology and democracy. Register now for the special evening event on 16th July, tickets are likely to sell out fast.

KNOCA publish new guidance for engaging young people and children in Climate Assemblies

Katie Reid at the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies has published a new guide providing unique considerations for reimagining and applying a citizens’ assembly model to include children and young people.

Thanks for all that you do — that’s all for this week,

UK Democracy Network Team