In May, the Commission was forced to apologise to the family of Drummer Lee Rigby for the deep offence caused to his family by its decision to allow the extremist party Britain First to register the slogan "Remember Lee Rigby" which appeared on European election ballot papers in Wales. The Commission's independent audit committee, chaired by Elizabeth Butler, ruled that in allowing the registration of the slogan it had "failed to exercise its responsibility properly in this area" and to give due consideration to "the broader context" in its decision-making. This ruling triggered the resignation of the Commission's director of party and election finance, who clearly did not feel he was above criticism.

Manifestly, the Commission failed in its duty to consider the "broader context" in its decision to allow "An Independence from Europe, UK Independence Now" to appear on the ballot paper and on our television screens. What will it allow in the General Election — someone to register "An Independent Conservative Party"? It would be sufficiently different from existing party names, using the Commission's current methodology.

The Commission's current chairperson, Jenny Watson, has been in office since 2009 and many of its worst errors have taken place while she has been in charge. Watson is on a salary of more than £100,000 a year but is required to work only three days a week.

It is clear that the Electoral Commission, created in 2001 by the Labour Government, is not fit for purpose in its present form. It should be abolished and replaced by an organisation with much less potential for political bias and more clearly defined responsibilities and powers. In 2010, in a possible attempt to tackle accusations of bias, four additional part-time Electoral Commissioners were appointed, one from each of the big three political parties plus one from the Scottish National Party. Tellingly, despite its continuing electoral successes, no one representing UKIP was appointed. Had that happened, perhaps the passing-off disaster that occurred at the 2014 European election could have been avoided.

What is certain is that there must never again be a national election in this country where, in all likelihood, almost a quarter of a million people were misled into voting for a nonentity of a political party that they did not support. The 2014 European election results were quite seriously distorted. There needs to be a major overhaul of ballot paper procedures and postal voting and a clampdown on electoral fraud. Is this likely to happen with the current Electoral Commission?