Electoral Commission pays Labour activists to produce foreign language election materials

The Electoral Commission is funding a Labour-run group to boost the turnout of foreign nationals in the Welsh elections.

The Electoral Commission is funding a group to boost the turnout of foreign nationals in the Welsh elections.

The Centre for Migration Control can now reveal that this group - Race Equality First - is run by active Labour campaigners and councillors, and has been awarded a £10,000 contract to boost the turnout of EU and Commonwealth citizens in the Welsh Senedd elections.

Foreign nationals voting in British elections

Ridiculously, certain Commonwealth nationals are eligible to vote in British parliamentary elections, regardless of their means of settlement. The basis for this is explained in a House of Commons briefing document in February 2026, with the Representation of the People Act 1983 referring to the franchise as encompassing Commonwealth citizens.

The problems caused by this peculiar legislation were first properly discussed just after the 2024 of the general election by Sam Bidwell and - in the aftermath of the sectarian Gorton and Denton by-election - it has become a major point of contention, with senior politicians calling for the anachronistic rules to be changed.

Those who are not even citizens of the United Kingdom are given the right to determine the course and direction of our country. This is clearly inappropriate.

In Wales, the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act, 2020 made provisions to “extend the vote to qualifying foreign citizens”. This decision compounded other disastrous decisions taken by Welsh Labour, such as making the country a “nation of sanctuary” - a controversial scheme, linked to the cities of sanctuary project, which has previously been accused of encouraging school children to send Valentine’s Day cards to illegal migrants.

Allowing foreign nationals to vote is a clear act of gerrymandering undertaken by Welsh Labour in the hope of bolstering their electoral fortunes. But it gets worse…

The Centre for Migration Control can now confirm that ahead of this year’s Senedd elections, the Electoral Commission awarded a £10,000 contract to a charity, Race Equality First (REF), that has on its board of Trustees a sitting Labour Councillor, a vocal supporter of former Labour First Minister, Mark Drakeford, and a supporter of the Welsh Labour attack dog, Rob Stewart. The organisation’s Head of Research is the former staffer of a Labour Assembly Member and has been a vocal supporter of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer.

FOI 171-25:

This organisation produced literature in foreign languages encouraging migrants to vote in the upcoming Senedd elections. This is an ominous indication of the way that British politics is heading, where individuals do not even need to learn the language of this country (whether that be English or Welsh) in order to determine the future path that it takes.

Race Equality First register to vote efforts

REF’s efforts to get foreign nationals registered to vote have centred on producing posters in foreign languages, that are prominently signposted on the Electoral Commission website.

These include Urdu, Somali, Mandarin, and Arabic:

Race Equality First is run by Welsh Labour activists

Kebba Manneh (trustee and treasurer):

The treasurer of Race Equality First is Kebba Manneh who also chairs UNISON’s National Black Workers Committee.

During the 2024 general election, Manneh campaigned regularly for Labour in Torfaen.

In February 2026, Manneh stood - uncontested - for Welsh Labour in Cwmbran’s Community Council elections.

He is now a Labour councillor representing the ward of St Dials on Cwmbran Community Council.

Despite being the treasurer of an organisation that operated an electoral commission contract for the Senedd elections, he has explicitly endorsed a Labour candidate standing in these elections:

Christina Tanti (Head of Research)

At the forefront of REF’s voter outreach efforts was the organisation’s Head of Research, Christina Tanti, claiming it was important to overcome barriers to foreign nationals voting - such as their inability to speak English, as quoted on the Electoral Commission website:

““Minority ethnic people in Wales are routinely under-represented when it comes to voter turnout in elections - not because of a lack of interest, but because of barriers such as language, limited confidence, and a lack of clear, accessible information about how voting and democratic participation works in Wales.”

In 2013, Tanti was an intern for the Welsh Labour assembly member Julie Morgan.

And has shown more recent support for the Labour Party under Keir Starmer:

Meena Upadhyaya (trustee)

During the 2018 Welsh Labour leadership campaign, Meena Upadhyaya was listed on Mark Drakeford’s website as a “supporter”, alongside Welsh MPs and AMs.

In 2024, she celebrated the work of Mark Drakeford whilst First Minister, claiming he left “behind a legacy that will continue to benefit Wales” and had made a “remarkable selfless contribution”.

She has shown her support for the Labour Councillor, and one-time Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Helen Lloyd-Jones:

In 2024, she celebrated Gething Jones becoming the First Minister of Wales, claiming it was an “historic achievement”.

Taha Idris (Trustee)

Taha Idris has, on his personal facebook profile, endorsed the long-serving Labour leader of Swansea Council, Rob Stewart, and vocal campaigner in this year’s Senedd elections, saying it was “a big YES from me”.

Other funding given to Race Equality First

In 2024 and 2024, the Welsh government also paid £387,925 to REF to run the Minority Ethnic Elders project, and the National Lottery paid £41,150 for a project on “discrimination and hate crime”.

The sum paid to REF may not be significant, but it is revealing that the Electoral Commission awarded a grant to an organisation with such clear bias amongst its senior personnel. What checks were conducted during the tender process? What considerations were made of potential bias of trustees? Or was it simply a case of throwing money at an organisation that laces its activities in warm-sounding words of “equality” and “positive change”?

Moreover, it is further indicative of the problems facing British democracy when the election quango is happily sponsoring partisan groups to produce electoral literature in foreign languages. The current controversy surrounding this issue, with the Tories recently declaring that they would ban leaflets in foreign languages, shows that this is an issue growing in salience.

Rather than fostering and supporting British democracy, by requiring even a modicum of integration from foreign nationals, ElComm is endorsing the continuation of segmented and siloed electoral campaigning. It is a quango that is inept and not fit for the present crises, caused by mass migration, that are currently enveloping our country’s democracy.