The 2018 ceremony garnered controversy when Harry Styles was announced as the winner of the British Video of the Year. The official Brits leaderboard for these votes showed Little Mix consistently maintaining the number one spot each week, followed by Styles at number two. During the final voting event on the night of the ceremony Little Mix and Styles alternated between the top spot on numerous occasions. The last leader-board update placed Little Mix at the top spot, with Styles at number two. After the announcement of Styles as a winner, the Brit Awards were accused by Little Mix fans of rigging the votes for this category.[10][11] The Brits responded to the claim, saying: "The final leader-board was displayed on The BRITs website prior to the final count being checked and verified independently by the Electoral Reform Services, the company that independently run all BRITs voting processes. The leader-board doesn’t work in real time and the vote was incredibly tight at the top. Fans can have complete confidence in the BRITs public vote." The Electoral Reform Services added: "Robust vote-counting rules and filters are in place which are in accordance with ITV's voting regulations, and agreed and tested prior to any vote taking place. We are confident that the vote integrity has not been compromised."[12][13]
