What we know about general election postal ballot delays

Ross McGuinness
·4-min read
London, UK. 24th June, 2024. A postal vote for the 2024 general election being posted in a letter box in Clapham, Lambeth. Although the elections date is 4 July, people with postal votes who have already made up their minds can vote early, Credit: Anna Watson/Alamy Live News
The government is investigating issues with postal votes. (Alamy)

The government is "urgently" investigating delays to postal ballots being delivered ahead of the general election.

Postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake has criticised Royal Mail for failing to deliver votes in time for the vote and, on Tuesday, health minister Maria Caulfield confirmed he had launched an investigation.

Delays in receiving postal votes have been a particular problem in Scotland where most schools have broken up for the summer, but concerns have also been raised in other parts of the UK.

However, Royal Mail said there wasn't a backlog, with a spokesperson saying: "Where specific concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network."

Voters in a number of areas in the UK have reported delays in receiving their postal ballot packs, which enables voters to cast their ballot if they are away from home or if they are abroad on polling day.

People in areas such as Scotland, London, Devon and Essex are just some of those who say they have not received their postal vote documents.

According to the Daily Telegraph, voters in 90 constituencies have voiced concerns about their ballot papers not arriving.

On Tuesday, the government announced that postal affairs minister Kevin Hollinrake has launched an "urgent" investigation into the delays.

Postal vote for the 2024 UK General Election
There have been delays for many postal voters ahead of the general election. (PA)

He has previously blamed Royal Mail for voters not receiving their postal ballot packs. He told the Telegraph: "We urge Royal Mail to do all they can to make sure that postal votes get to the right people at the right time, and time is completely of the essence now.

"They have recruited extra people and I welcome that but they’ve got to make sure they’ve got the right number of people to deliver the mail at busy times like this.

"It’s not acceptable it’s sat in sorting offices. It needs to be delivered to people’s houses. So they need to put more people on to do that."

However, Royal Mail has hit back at the criticism, telling Yahoo News UK: “We have no backlog of postal votes and, whilst we are not complacent, we remain confident that postal votes handed to us on time will be delivered prior to polling day.

"Where specific concerns have been raised, we have investigated and confirmed ballot packs are being delivered as soon as they arrive in our network."

The spokesperson added that Royal Mail would welcome a review of the postal vote timetable for future elections.

Your guide to voting

The leaders

Scotland’s first minister John Swinney warned that some people could be “disenfranchised” if their postal votes cannot be filled out and returned on time, amid widespread reports of delays there.

In England, some 2,600 postal votes were also reportedly sent out late in Essex’s Uttlesford District Council, whose chief executive apologised for the delay caused by “human error”.

The Electoral Commission said it will look into the administration of postal voting after this election, while the Local Government Association (LGA) called for a review of the already “overburdened” system put under extra pressure by an “unprecedented increase” in people voting by post.

An Electoral Commission spokesperson said: “The vast majority of postal votes have been delivered, with tens of thousands landing on doorsteps over the weekend. We are not aware of any outstanding large-scale issues.”

The responsibility for sending postal ballots to voters lies with local councils and completed postal votes must have reached councils by 10pm on 4 July.

The Electoral Commission said postal votes can be submitted by hand at council offices or at any polling station on election day.

It hasn't been confirmed how many constituencies have been affected by delays, and how many people are potentially at the risk of not being able to vote on Thursday.

The reasons for the delays have not been fully established, with councils, the Royal Mail and staffing issues all being blamed.

In the general election in 2019, one in five voters did so via a postal vote, and the LGA believes this could increase by 20% this time round, with more than 1.3 million postal vote applications made between 22 May and 19 June.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • Michelle Obama the only Biden alternative who would beat Trump

    The only prospective candidate who could beat Donald Trump in the presidential election is Michelle Obama, according to a new poll.

  • ‘Longkang otak’? FT minister moots system to track Malaysians working abroad to tackle brain drain

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustafa has reportedl...

  • High Court says no to Najib’s judicial review bid over ‘house arrest’ call

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — The High Court today dismissed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s bid to compel the f...

  • A growing club led by Xi and Putin to counter the US is adding a staunchly pro-Russia member

    A club of Eurasian countries spearheaded by China and Russia to advance their leaders’ vision of an alternative world order is set to expand again this week – this time adding a staunch Russian ally that has openly supported Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

  • All you need to know about: Malaysia’s new cost-of-living benchmark

    On July 2, 2024, the government announced in Parliament a new indicator to measure the cost of living in Malaysia that w...

  • Ukraine is killing Russian missiles with hand-me-down air defense weapons the US retired decades ago

    The MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air system was first fielded in the 1960s and has long been considered obsolete, with militaries favoring other weapons.

  • Donald Trump is the real President of the USA right now

    Donald Trump can’t believe his luck. Just a few days after Joe Biden seemed to fire himself from his own job live on air during a toe-curling presidential debate, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that sitting and former presidents of the United States possess a degree of immunity not available to private citizens. In this strange new world, Republicans can now win in televised debates and the courts. Nixon must be rolling in his grave.

  • China urges Philippines to punish killers of Chinese citizen

    China called on the Philippines to catch and severely punish the murderers of a Chinese citizen in a kidnapping case that prompted Beijing’s diplomatic intervention.

  • Court grants Muhyiddin’s request for temporary passport to attend granddaughter’s London graduation

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — The Sessions Court here today granted Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s application for a temporary inte...

  • Ivanka Trump breaks silence on father’s conviction in hush money case

    NEW YORK — Ivanka Trump broke her weekslong silence regarding her father’s recent hush money criminal conviction during a podcast appearance released Tuesday. The former White House staffer said the experience has been agonizing. “On a human level, it’s my father and I love him very much, so it’s painful to experience, but ultimately, I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” she said on “The Lex ...

  • Russia's war-driven economy is so hot that the World Bank upgraded it to a 'high-income country'

    Russia's trade rebounded by nearly 7% last year, while activities in the financial sector and construction grew by 6.6% and 3.6% respectively.

  • Biden blames foreign travel for debate debacle, says he almost fell asleep on stage

    President Biden on Tuesday blamed foreign travel for his poor debate performance, saying that he almost fell asleep on the stage last week. “I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate,” he said while talking to donors at a fundraiser in Virginia. “I didn’t…

  • Melania ‘cuts deal with Trump’ about her future role if he wins the White House

    Melania plans to split her time between Washington DC and New York, where the couple’s son Barron Trump is expected to attend NYU

  • Rishi Sunak profile: A stratospheric rise from squeaky clean student to prime minister

    Follow The Telegraph’s latest general election live blog

  • Only far right can win absolute majority, French PM warns

    The far-right National Rally (RN) is the only party capable of winning an absolute majority in France's legislative elections, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said Wednesday, urging voters to block their rise to power.An absolute majority of 289 seats is needed in the 577 seat National Assembly for a party to form a government on its own.

  • Indian opposition leader sparks protests with remarks attacking ruling party in parliament

    Besides the prime minister, several ministers from Modi’s cabinet interrupted Gandhi’s speech and demanded an apology from him

  • France probes Chad leader over luxury clothing spending

    French prosecutors have ordered an inquiry into allegations that Chad's president embezzled public funds to splurge on luxury clothing from Paris, a source close to the case said Tuesday.French investigative outlet Mediapart published in December a story in which it alleged that the Chadian leader, through two bank transfers, spent more than 900,000 euros ($965,000) on suits, shirts and other luxury items from the French capital.

  • UK's Labour to win largest majority in modern history, YouGov forecasts

    LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's opposition Labour Party is on track to win the largest majority of any party in modern history at Thursday's election, according to a final YouGov projection published on Wednesday. The multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) analysis predicted that Labour would win 431 seats, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives expected to win 102. It gave Labour a majority of 212 seats.

  • All change? Labour tipped to oust Tories at UK election

    Britain looks likely to see a change of government this week, swinging leftwards back to the centre ground and the Labour party after 14 years of right-wing Conservative rule.  Voters will elect a new parliament from 7:00 am (0600 GMT) on Thursday, with predictions of a landslide Labour win that would make Keir Starmer prime minister -- 100 years after Ramsay MacDonald became the party's first. "There is more chance of lightning striking twice in the same place... than Rishi Sunak remaining as prime minister," Britain's pre-eminent political polling expert John Curtice told the BBC on Tuesday.Starmer and Conservative leader Sunak have been criss-crossing the country in the final days of a largely lacklustre campaign to try to win over wavering voters.  Many people appear to have long made up their minds, however, with focus on little else other than whether Labour's consistent 20-point lead in the polls for the last two years will translate into a record majority. Prime Minister Sunak on Tuesday insisted that he is "fighting for every vote till the last moment of the campaign", drawing hope from England's last-gasp win in the European football championships.  "It's not over until it's over," Sunak wrote on social media on Sunday night after England's footballers scored a stoppage-time equaliser against Slovakia and then an extra-time winner.Starmer, a staunch Arsenal fan who still plays five-a-side football at 61, is also calling on his team to play until the final whistle, with fears that talk of a Labour "supermajority" could hit turn-out.- Growth -Sunak and the Tories -- another name for the Conservatives -- have been going all out to play upon people's fears, warning of tax rises and weaker national security if they are voted out, in what Labour sees as a desperate last-stand to cling on to power.But in a sign the political landscape has already shifted, it was Starmer, not Sunak, whose views were sought in the aftermath of the far-right win in the first round of the French general election.He has also been asked how he, as the leader of a "progressive" centre-left party, would deal with the possible return of Donald Trump as US president later this year.Attention in the British media is meanwhile mostly on what a Starmer government would look like when the results for the 650-seat parliament start dropping from about 2230 GMT on Thursday into Friday morning.Thursday's vote is Britain's first July election since 1945, when Labour under Clement Attlee defeated the Conservatives of World War II leader Winston Churchill, ushering in a period of transformational social change.Attlee's government created the modern welfare state, including the National Health Service, Britain's most cherished institution after the royal family. Starmer's "change" agenda is not so radical this time around and promises cautious management of the country's economy, as part of a long-term growth plan that includes nursing battered public services back to health."The most important thing is growing the economy and wealth creation," he told The Times in an interview published on Tuesday. "You can talk about public services but if you haven't got your economy working then you can't do that."- 'Run out of road' -With an air of inevitability about a Labour win, Starmer and his colleagues are facing mounting calls and growing expectations to change Britain's flagging fortunes for the better.Economists say anaemic growth should be addressed. Pro-Europeans want Brexit reversed. Everyone wants an end to the sustained squeeze on their finances over the last decade and a half that has tipped more people into poverty."In 2010, when the Conservatives came to power, the UK had 35 foodbanks. Now there are 2,600," Gordon Brown, Labour's last prime minister, wrote in the Daily Mirror on Tuesday.Others want a return of political integrity and stability after a chaotic period of five prime ministers, a succession of scandals and ideological infighting between centrists and right-wingers that shows no sign of abating. Starmer -- the working-class son of a tool maker and a nurse -- has none of the political charisma or popularity of former leader Tony Blair when he ended 18 years of Tory rule in a wave of optimism in 1997. But the former human rights lawyer and chief public prosecutor stands to gain from a country fed up with the Tories, and a feeling of decline rather than improvement."The Conservatives have run out of road. Labour must be given a chance to govern," said a Financial Times editorial Monday.phz/har/bc

  • Bailed Indian opposition leader to return as chief minister

    A top Indian opposition leader is set to return as chief minister of Jharkhand state, days after he was released from prison on bail, a key party official said Wednesday.A month after Hemant was detained, another key opposition figure, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, was arrested by the same law enforcement agency.