Labour urges Government to abandon voter ID plans

THE Government must scrap its policy of requiring all UK voters to prove their identity in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, Labour has said.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Cat Smith said the requirement for voter ID should be dropped in order to improve equal participation in elections as the policy will disproportionately discriminate against ethnic minorities.

But Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith denied that voter identification is a discriminatory policy, stating that there is “no impact on any particular demographic group”.

She said Ms Smith “sees evils where they do not exist”.

“Like everybody on this side of the House, and I hope like everybody everywhere in this House, we all agree that black lives matter.

“But Ms Smith is wrong and has been wrong every time she tries to run that argument about voter identification, which is a reasonable thing that many other countries do and that we will improve the security of our voting in this country and where the evidence shows that there is no impact on any particular demographic group.”

Voter ID has been a requirement in Northern Ireland since 1985. It comes as last week, Court of Appeal judges rejected a legal challenge on the use of voter ID in trials during the local elections last May.

Ten local authorities took part in pilots arranged by the Government at elections last year, with voters in the participating areas asked to meet ID requirements, as set out by each authority, to be able to cast their vote.

The trials were run with a view to rolling out voter ID nationwide in future elections, plans which the Government unveiled in the Queen’s Speech.

Ministers have said there will be free ID for people who cannot prove their identity; however people will still have to apply to their local councils for the documents.