Plans to restrict postal voting and introduce ballot box identity checks are being floated by an elections watchdog to help crack down on polling fraud.

Bradford is one of 15 areas due to be monitored by the Electoral Commission, who said that the British voting system is vulnerable to abuse even when all current measures are being taken to prevent and detect it.

It found there is a "consistent underlying level of concern among voters" about electoral fraud but reports of wrong-doing are mainly concentrated in a small number of English local authority areas.

The commission is looking at a number of options to crack down on abuse of the system in Britain including adopting measures currently used in Northern Ireland, such as restricting postal voting to constituents that are physically unable to vote in person and forcing voters to prove their identity at polling stations.

It will monitor 15 areas - Birmingham, Blackburn with Darwen, Bradford, Burnley, Calderdale, Coventry, Hyndburn, Kirklees, Oldham, Pendle, Peterborough, Slough, Tower Hamlets, Walsall, and Woking - where there has been a history of cases of alleged fraud.

Jenny Watson, chair of the Electoral Commission, said: "Although the law has been changed over the years to strengthen the system - introducing checks on postal votes and making registering to vote more secure starting next summer - our research shows voters are still concerned about electoral fraud.

"As we make the electoral registration system more secure, it's time to look at whether other trust-based elements of our system are sustainable.”