23AUG

VAC pace lags; FCA reviews Stack BTC

1 min read

19:09UTC

Voter Authority Certificate applications ran at 259-524 per day in the week before the Tuesday 28 April deadline, well below the pace needed to clear the 2024 baseline. The FCA confirmed it will review the Lib Dem complaint about Farage's Stack BTC stake but has not opened a formal investigation.

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Key takeaway

VAC pace lags the 2024 baseline; the FCA Stack BTC review will not finish before polling.

Voter Authority Certificate applications ran at 259-524 per day in the week before the 28 April deadline ¹. The highest day was Monday 20 April with 524; the lowest was Saturday 25 April with 259. The 2024 local-election baseline was 22,749 total applications and the 2023 total was 25,000. The Government Digital Service dashboard reports daily applications but no cumulative figure, and the Electoral Commission has published no post-deadline registration total since 20 April. Whether the 2026 total clears the 2024 baseline cannot be confirmed before the deadline closes.

The Financial Conduct Authority told BBC News it will review the Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper's complaint about Nigel Farage's promotion of crypto company Stack BTC, in which he holds a 6.31% personal equity stake worth £215,000 ². No formal investigation has been opened. The complaint dates from 14 April . Stack BTC is not publicly traded, complicating Market Abuse Regulation application. Both deadlines are unlikely to move ahead of 7 May, leaving the photo-ID filter and the financial-conduct question as overhangs into polling day.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

To vote in the UK, you need to show photo ID. If you do not have a passport or driving licence, you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate (VAC) from your local council. The deadline to apply for the 7 May elections is 28 April. In the week before that deadline, between 259 and 524 VAC applications were being processed every day across England. That is a slower rate than was seen before the 2024 local elections, when a total of 22,749 VACs were issued. Electoral Commission research from February found that 55% of voters in areas with 7 May elections did not know the free ID existed. Separately, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) , the UK's main financial regulator , has confirmed it received a letter from Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper asking it to investigate Nigel Farage's role in cryptocurrency firm Stack BTC. Farage personally holds a £215,000 stake in the company (about 6% of it) while appearing in its promotional material. The FCA said it would review the letter, but has not opened a formal investigation. Any investigation would conclude well after the 7 May elections.

Sources:UK Government (GDS)·UK Government (GDS)·CoinTelegraph

Mentions:Electoral Commission →Voter Authority Certificate →Financial Conduct Authority →Stack BTC →Nigel Farage →England →Government Digital Service →Daisy Cooper →

First Reported In

Update #5 · 11 Days to Go: Six-of-six, RPA dies, Welsh lead flips

UK Government (GDS)· 26 Apr 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Lib Dems ask FCA to probe Farage crypto stake

The Lib Dem FCA complaint about Farage's Stack BTC stake (2416) progressed to FCA acknowledgment but no formal investigation by 25 April.

Occurred 14 Apr 2026

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This Event

VAC pace lags; FCA reviews Stack BTC

Two regulatory deadlines run in parallel: a non-extendable photo-ID gate that may filter out tens of thousands of voters by silence, and a financial-conduct complaint that may not move before polling day.

Led to

RPA Bill stranded, FCA review without probe

FCA's acknowledgement without investigation of the Stack BTC complaint is one of the three pillars of the polling-day regulatory void

Occurred 6 May 2026

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Standards opens Farage £5m gift inquiry

The FCA's Stack BTC complaint acknowledgement (2807) becomes one of three simultaneous inquiries into Harborne's relationship with Farage.

Occurred 13 May 2026

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Different Perspectives

Ian Davidson, Acting Returning Officer for Clacton

Davidson's office printed a 90cm ballot paper for the record 34-candidate field, with nothing in electoral law capping candidate numbers or the £500 deposit each pays. He expects the paper's size to raise printing costs and slow the count into the early hours, a strain that follows from the major parties' boycott, not from turnout.

Scottish Labour members

Members now choose between Michael Marra and Joe Fagan after Monica Lennon fell one MP nomination short of the three-MP, three-MSP threshold, a bar set by MPs and union officials rather than the wider membership. Whoever wins takes office having faced only one rival on the members' ballot.

Labour Party

Labour gained Penistone East from Reform on 20 August but lost Harraby South to Reform the same night, a wash that undercuts any claim of momentum. The party can point to beating Reform in a genuinely fought contest, but not to a pattern running only in its favour.

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats took two of Reform's May wards, Almondbury on 13 August and St Neots Eynesbury on 20 August, the latter on a 29.8-point rise in their own vote share. Both results let the party claim it is the beneficiary when voters turn against Reform, not Labour or the Conservatives.

Reform UK

Reform UK can point to winning Clacton unopposed by the other major parties and to taking Harraby South from Labour, a ward it had never previously contested. That gives the party two results to cite even as three previously held wards changed hands elsewhere in August.

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin's John O'Dowd ruled out a Stormont walkout on 11 August despite calling the DUP increasingly difficult to work with, closing a question Conor Murphy had left open a fortnight earlier. Only Sinn Féin or the DUP can collapse the joint First Minister office, so the denial gives up the party's own leverage in budget talks.