ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Angry London voters including Britain’s Chief Rabbi were turned away from polling stations today after a huge blunder hit thousands in the mayoral election.

Polling chiefs in a key battleground were branded “a disgrace” after accidentally sending out the wrong voter lists.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and his wife Valerie were among those sent away from polling stations in the Barnet area of north London.

He lost his chance to vote altogether as he was flying to Amsterdam to visit the Jewish community there.

“The Chief Rabbi was disappointed at not being able to vote,” said a source.

There were furious scenes at some polling stations as voters learned they were being deprived of their vote, with some shouting at council staff and saying they were being “disenfranchised”.

One would-be voter yelled at staff, “this is the worst council in Britain, it’s a disaster”, while another said “this is a conspiracy”.

Lawyer Karen Johnson, 44, told the Standard: “It’s a complete disgrace. They said they’ve been given the wrong lists and people can’t vote. I feel disenfranchised.

“If it’s close then they should re-run it so people can have their say.”

With every one of Barnet's 155 polling stations having incomplete lists, the astonishing bungle is thought to have affected thousands of potential voters.

The borough refused to confirm or deny how many and claimed only those who tried to vote without their voting cards were turned away.

However, the Evening Standard spoke to voters who had their cards and were still refused a vote because their names were not accurately recorded on the lists at polling stations.

Dan Krendel, 31, said: “I felt sorry for the staff because people were shouting at them demanding to know what was going on, but they didn’t seem to know.”

Journalist Lyndon White, 44, told the Standard: “They told me there had been a massive problem with the register and I asked if that meant I couldn’t vote. They said ‘yes’.

“There should big consequences for the person that runs the electoral register. They should pay a price.”

He added that if the result is close the fiasco would leave many voters feeling it was unfair.

Zac Goldsmith was thought to be the biggest potential loser from the fiasco, which unfolded in a prosperous, Conservative-controlled borough where thousands of Jewish residents were getting their first chance to deliver a verdict on the anti-Semitism scandal.

Sophie Walker, the Women’s Equality Party mayoral candidate, swiftly registered a complaint with both the council and the London Assembly.

“I am very disappointed,” she said. “I have spent my morning responding to messages from people upset that they could not vote.

“Women first got the vote 100 years ago and there are women today who have been unable to vote.”

Some 236,196 people are registered to vote in Barnet for today’s Mayoral and London Assembly elections.

Witnesses reported that officials turned back every voter arriving at one station, telling them they not on the list.

Dozens of registered voters, including at least one councillor, were turned away at polling stations at Strawberry Vale and Trinity Church Centre.

There were also reports of problems at East Finchley. At the Bishop Douglass School polling station at 9am harassed-looking officials were pulling would-be voters aside to explain “the systems are down”.

A spokeswoman for Mr Goldsmith urged those who lost out to try to vote again later in the day when the council promised that the problem would have been fixed.

She said there had “clearly been a major problem across the whole of the Borough of Barnet” and added: “It remains to be seen what the effect of this will be upon the three ballots taking place there.

“We would strongly encourage any voters wrongly turned away to return to their polling stations at any time up to 10pm this evening if at all possible.”

Meanwhile a Labour politician warned the botch could potentially leave the result of the election open to a court challenge. London Assembly candidate Tom Copley said: “If the mayoral vote is close this kind of incompetence by a borough could lead to a challenge in the courts.”

No official explanation was offered immediately, but a source told the Standard that it appeared a list was sent to polling stations that contained only names registered in the last few months, potentially leaving thousands off.

Labour London Assembly candidate Andrew Dismore said officials at his station only appeared to have a “supplementary register” listing those who registered in recent weeks.

Mr Dismore said: “How on earth someone running the election doesn’t know the difference between the supplementary register, which is a few dozen pages or so, and the main register which is like a telephone directory, just beggars belief.

“It’s woeful incompetence. Every election Barnet seems to cock something up, but in the scale of Barnet cock-ups this is mammoth.”

News of the fiasco spread on Twitter with users reporting that at one station the list of approved voters only had around 200 names on it.

Barnet Council said in a statement this morning it was aware of “problems” that meant “a number of people” were unable to vote.

It added: “We are working to resolve this issue and the updated registers have been sent to all the polling stations, which we expect to be in place by 10am.

“In the meantime, people who have their polling cards with them are able to vote.

“We are advising residents to bring their polling cards. If people were unable to vote this morning they are being advised to return if possible later before the stations close at 10pm. We apologise for the problems.”

It later advised those who had not been able to cast their ballot and could not return later to register for a proxy vote.

A statement said: “Anyone who attended a polling station in Barnet this morning, and was turned away and therefore could not vote, and was unable to return due to work reasons, may be able to use an emergency proxy vote.

“They will need to complete an application form on our website and return it by 5pm today."