It is quite unbelievable that MPs from Reform UK have tabled an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill in the House of Commons, which would criminalise the use of the Cornish language on election materials. Their amendment (NC107) states that a “person shall not print or publish … any bill, placard, poster or printed document … unless the material is in the English language or the Welsh language.” It further states that anyone who commits an offence “under this section” is liable to “imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months” and / or a fine.
The amendment follows on from Reform criticism that the Green Party produced campaign leaflets, which used both English and Urdu, in February’s Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election. Their perspective has rightly been condemned as “plainly discriminatory.” Reform have also drafted the amendment so badly that it would lead to bans on some of the UK’s indigenous languages – such as Cornish, Irish, Scots and Scottish Gaelic – as well as British Sign Language.
The Scottish National Party described the suggested ban on Scottish Gaelic and Scots as anti-Scottish, while the Irish language body, Conradh na Gaeilge, said the proposal would go against the Good Friday Agreement, which “called for resolute action to support linguistic diversity.” Others have even questioned whether the amendment would be lawful, given some of the legal protections enjoyed by the languages. And Mebyon Kernow described the proposed new clause as “daft,” not least because it would be questionable whether we would be able to use our own party name on campaign materials – as it is in Cornish!
The story was initially broken by Josiah Mortimer, through the Bylines Times, and Reform UK subsequently issued an additional statement. They said that the amendment had been drafted “to apply in England and Wales,” adding that there had been an “administrative error” and “the Parliamentary Office amended the proposal to include a specific reference to Scotland and Northern Ireland that was not in the draft we originally proposed.”
A Reform UK spokesman has added that, when the Bill is next discussed, they will clarify that the restriction to English and Welsh “would only apply” to the south of the Tweed and to the east of Offa’s Dyke, and therefore the use of Irish, Scots and Scottish Gaelic would not be criminalised. One of their members in the Scottish Parliament even told journalists: “Reform UK is committed to protecting the linguistic heritage of Britain.” But he was silent on our national language and, as things stand, Cornish would still be banned if the amendment was to be accepted!
Article published in the Cornish Guardian (22nd July 2026) and West Briton newspapers (23rd July 2026)