Peterborough and Postal Voting

The Peterborough by-election was the first such election induced by the Recall of MPs Act 2015, after a successful recall petition removed Fiona Onasanya — following her conviction for perverting the course of justice.

Lisa Forbes, the Labour candidate, narrowly held the seat from the Brexit Party.

In response, numerous assertions about postal voting and vote choice have been made — to imply electoral fraud. This article looks at these claims.

The Result

From the 2017 General Election to this by-election, Labour’s vote share decreased by 17 points. The Conservatives fell even further, by 25 points. The newly-formed Brexit Party, which had not fought a Westminster seat before, achieved 29% of the vote. Labour narrowly gained from the Conservatives in 2017, and narrowly held against the Brexit Party in 2019.

The by-election turnout was 48.4% — over two-thirds of the 2017 turnout (67.5%). The turnout among postal votes was 69.4%. The Peterborough City Council results website does not currently contain the count of postal votes.