Evidence has emerged that the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) vote last week to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students (NUS) may have been rigged. The Oxford Student is reporting that the victorious 'No' Campaign, headed by Jack Matthews, has come forward and suggested that over 1,000 extra votes may have been cast in favour of the 'No' Campaign.

Matthews, filing a complaint about the evidence of vote rigging, noted that over 1,000 spare Unique Voter Codes (UVCs), which had not been allocated to students but instead kept as extras, had been accessed by a single IP address and used to vote 'no' "in large clusters […] at a similar time”. Around 23,000 UVCs were issued for use in the election, despite the Oxford student body consisting of 21,500 voting members. It is thought that the difference between these two figures may be as a result of vote rigging by a rogue individual, with the exception of 20 spare UVCs which Returning Officer Alexander Walker had distributed to students who had requested them during the referendum period.

The result of the vote had been announced on Wednesday, with the 'Yes' Campaign receiving 1652 votes, compared to the 'No' Campaign's 1780. The discrepancy of 1,000 additional UVCs having been accessed implies that the vote rigging may have significantly swung the outcome of the referendum.

It is not thought that the leaders of the 'No' Campaign were involved in the vote rigging, but the discovery has prompted Matthews to announce that he will be "working together" with the leader of the 'Yes' Campaign, Tom Rutland, over the coming days. According to the electoral rules set out by OUSU, the Junior Tribunal must make a decision as to how to proceed within 96 hours of the complaint being filed. Matthews and Rutland have since explained: “We are both concerned that the result of the referendum did not accurately reflect the views of students. We await the decision of the Junior Tribunal".