A WIDER and more thorough review into the recent election blunder has been proposed by Barnet’s Labour Group.

Opposition leader Barry Rawlings's motion calling for a more comprehensive investigation into what went wrong was agreed by all councillors at Barnet Council's annual meeting last night.

Cllr Rawlings said the review should include whether the resources and staff in Barnet's electoral services is adequate, and how effectively polling cards, postal votes and proxy votes are being administered.

He also asked for them to look into the election hotline - which apparently went down during the mayoral elections - and whether lessons from previous elections have been learnt.

He said: “When I tell people I am a councillor in Barnet, people say ‘my commiserations to you’ and we are proposing an investigation into the election shambles.

“Clearly the investigation needs to be thorough to resolve the errors in process that are occurring election to election, and this needs to be done quickly, independently and publicly before the EU Referendum to restore confidence in the system. I look forward to some kind of review on this.”

Thousands of people lost their vote in the mayoral elections this year, after a mix-up saw the incorrect lists sent out to polling stations on Friday morning May 6.

The correct lists were sent to stations by 10.30am, but the farce sparked concern that all votes may need to be nullified as some were unable to get back to Barnet before the polls closed at 10pm.

An investigation into what went wrong is currently being carried out by Southampton City Council chairman Mark Heath.

Leader of Barnet Council, Conservative Cllr Richard Cornelius replied and said he agreed with a lot of what Cllr Rawlings said.

He said: “It is a great shame that this happened. I agree with a lot of what Cllr Rawlings has said, we don’t know many people were affected and unable to vote, and we look forward to finding out.

“No one who stood for election, and the people were unable to vote cannot be proud of what happened in the recent election.”