Thousands of students may have voted TWICE for Jeremy Corbyn in General Election, watchdog says

THOUSANDS of students could have voted twice for Jeremy Corbyn in the General Election, a watchdog has warned.

Tory MPs are calling for an investigation after claiming students had "boasted" online of voting for the Labour leader at both their home and uni addresses.

The Electoral Commission, which oversees elections, told the Daily Mail it had no evidence of "widespread abuse" but it was "troubling that some voters appear to have admitted voting more than once".

Conservative MP Peter Bone said he feared the issue could have affected the outcome of last month's election.

He said: "The Electoral Commission and the police need to look at this very seriously.

"I fear this happened more than people think, not by chance, but by design. I fear that it was organised.

"There were a number of students on social media boasting that they had voted in more than one place."

Former Tory MP Karl McCartney, who lost his Lincoln seat to Labour, said: "We have screenshots of students of people saying on Facebook saying that they voted twice.

"Turnout in two high student areas, which is traditionally low, was up 15 per cent, which is phenomenal."

Last month the Tories lost a seat to Labour in Canterbury, which has 40,000 students, by just 187 votes.

And in Lincoln, which has 18,000 students, Labour won by 1,538 votes.

Students are believed to have been lured to vote for Corbyn after his promise to axe tuition fees.

But this week shadow chancellor John McDonnell downgraded the election pledge by saying a Labour government would “try to” cancel the debt.

The commission said it had received more than 1,000 emails from the public and 38 complaints from MPs.

It is illegal to vote twice but it is not illegal to register in more than one constituency.

Those caught breaking the law can be fined up to £5,000.

But there is no automatic way to check the names of postal or proxy votes across different areas, because information is held locally.

People can register online to vote even if they are already registered somewhere else.

Authorities rely on tip-offs from the public to identify electoral fraud.

The commission said it was working with police on how to investigate the allegations, adding: "Tools to prevent double voting at general elections should be explored quickly."

The commission warned that in some areas, the number of applications from people already on the electoral register was up by up to 70 per cent.

A statement said: "Although people may lawfully be registered to vote in more than one place in certain circumstances, it is troubling that some voters appear to have admitted voting more than once at the general election, which is an offence.

"Urgent action is needed to reduce both the scale and the administrative impact of duplicate registration applications ahead of future polls."

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