“It is completely unacceptable in this age for anyone’s vote to be watched or pressured inside a polling station,” Clarke is reported by the publication as saying, with the Tory party politician emphasising that “the secrecy of the ballot is as important in the 21st century as it was in the 19th”.
“Any cultural practice of husbands being allowed to instruct their wives how to vote is an insult to the hard-fought liberty of female suffrage,” he continued. “The law must be applied equally and fairly to everyone, even if that offends ‘woke’ sensibilities.”