Parliament excluded the Representation of the People Bill from the four-bill wash-up before prorogation on Wednesday 29 April 2026, which means the bill that would have required Reform UK to return Christopher Harborne's £12 million in cryptocurrency donations within 30 days of Royal Assent is not law on polling day . The Financial Conduct Authority has acknowledged the Liberal Democrat complaint about Farage's £215,000 personal stake in Stack BTC without opening an investigation . The single Section 106 RPA conviction of the cycle remains the Cambridgeshire Reform councillor Andy Osborn, fined £1,800 and his seat vacated for a false Facebook post about a Conservative rival .
The statutory architecture holding the contest together rests on four pillars: Section 30 of the Scotland Act 1998, which governs whether Holyrood can hold a binding independence referendum; Section 66A of the Representation of the People Act 1983, which criminalises pre-22:00 publication of exit-poll material; Section 106 of the same Act, which criminalises false statements of fact about a candidate's personal character; and Section 114 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, which restricts authorities that cannot set a balanced budget for the year ahead.
On 7 May 2026 three of the four are misaligned. Wes Streeting has prospectively denied any Holyrood request, regardless of the result . Section 66A is the only pillar fully in force; no exit-poll material exists yet. Section 106 has produced one conviction in 12 months across roughly 4,000 standing candidates. Section 114 reaches deep into the LGA's 22% Exceptional Financial Support finding (the subject of the next event). Westminster did not deliver the settlement under which 5,000 council seats will be contested tomorrow.
Voters will mark ballots tomorrow under rules Westminster decided not to fix in time, which means the donation, exit-poll and defamation regimes the country thought were active are partially active at most.
