22MAY

VAC pace lags; FCA reviews Stack BTC

1 min read

10:09UTC

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 12 May 2026

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Different Perspectives

UK Government (Labour)

Westminster framed the youth justice transfer as a culmination of prior work rather than a precedent, refused a Section 30 order before the request arrived, and omitted both the Representation of the People Bill and any Wales Bill from the 13 May King's Speech. Starmer is described as open to a devolved-leaders summit in June.

Reform UK

Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk filed pre-action protocol letters framing their LGR challenge as mandate-consistent, while 22 Reform councillors departed in 14 days at an annualised rate nearly three times the 10 percent projection. Richard Tice defended the Harborne 5 million pound gift as unconditional, with no acknowledgement of Farage's two contradictory accounts on record.

SNP (Scottish Government)

Swinney submitted a Section 30 request on 14 May citing the 73-seat SNP-Greens pro-independence bloc and the 2014 Edinburgh Agreement precedent, despite the SNP finishing seven below his self-set 65-seat trigger. Downing Street's contradictory readout of their call suggests Westminster is treating the request as a holding item rather than a live constitutional negotiation.

Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

ap Iorwerth framed the youth justice transfer as a starting point for his six-power Wales Bill agenda, pressing demands at a phone call with Keir Starmer on 18 May and winning the first statutory function transfer to Cardiff since 1999. The Greens' unwritten confidence-and-supply arrangement gives him 45 of 96 seats, four short of a majority.

Russell Findlay (Scottish Conservatives)

Findlay refused to resign as Scottish Conservative leader after the party fell to 12 Holyrood seats and lost all five constituency MSPs. He declined Swinney's post-election talks invitation, the only major-party leader to do so.

John Swinney (SNP)

Swinney committed on 14 May to a Holyrood Section 30 vote within a week despite winning seven seats fewer than his own trigger threshold, relying on a SNP-Green majority of 73. He tabled a meeting with Starmer; Downing Street disputed that any referendum discussion was agreed.