ADVANCES in technology mean elections and referendums are “more vulnerable to invisible manipulation and corruption than at any time since 1880”, Newport West MP Paul Flynn has claimed.

Speaking in Parliament last week, the Labour MP said he was concerned the potential impact of cyber attacks and attempts to manipulate voters was not fully understood.

He was speaking during a debate around a report into how last year’s referendum into the UK’s membership of the European Union was run, which was unable to determine why the government’s voter registration website crashed hours before the deadline to sign the electoral roll.

Addressing chairman of Westminster’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which developed the report, Bernard Jenkin, Mr Flynn said: “Our system for referendums and elections is more vulnerable to invisible manipulation and corruption than at any time since 1880.”

He added he was concerned the use of so-called ‘under the counter’ systems was not fully understood.

“They seek to trawl through websites to get information and subsequently influence voters,” he said.

“We are trying to deal with tomorrow’s systems and tomorrow’s high technology with regulations that are long out of date.

“Is not it likely that in the coming election there will be more manipulation, that there could well be cyber-attacks, and that we cannot trust these results, because what is happening is under the counter and the Electoral Commission has no tools to deal with it in the way it should?”

He said he was particularly concerned June’s General Election was being held without more information about voter manipulation and was concerned alleged issues faced during last year’s US Presidential election could be repeated in the UK.

“That could well have happened here,” he said. “We do not know because we have not asked.”

Responding, Mr Jenkins said: “I do not agree that this threatens the credibility of our elections.”

But, he added: “We need to be alert to the things that the honourable gentleman draws attention to, and to be ever more alert to the fake news that appears on the internet and is designed to manipulate people’s expectations.”