Labor denounces plans to identify ‘cynical and ugly’ voters ahead of Queen’s speech | Political news

Labor has criticized “cynical and ugly” plans to require voters to provide proof of identity when voting.

A number of measures to tackle voter fraud are expected to be introduced by the government in Tuesday’s Queen’s Speech, including on voter identification.

Right now, people just have to walk into a polling station and give their name and address to vote.

Labor shadow justice secretary David Lammy has criticized plans to force people to provide identification in the future.

He said: “In the 2019 election, there was only one conviction for electoral fraud. 3.5 million UK citizens do not have a photo ID.

“This is a cynical and ugly attempt to rig the system in order to deprive the poorest and most marginalized groups of their power.”

Chloe Smith, Minister of Constitution and Decentralization, said the legislation was designed to “eradicate” fraud.

“Stealing someone’s vote is stealing their vote. Fraud and the intention to intimidate or coerce a voter are crimes,” she said.

“So this government is removing the space for such damage to occur in our elections.”

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Pilot voter identification projects have taken place in recent years, notably during local elections in 2019.

The Election Commission said that in the areas that participated, the proportion of people who initially did not bring the correct ID and then did not return varied from 0.03% of all voters. polling stations in one area of ​​the council at 0.7% in two other areas.

The commission said it could not “draw definitive conclusions” from the pilot projects “on how an identity requirement would work in practice, especially in a national election with higher turnout or in areas with different socio-demographic profiles that would not be fully represented in the country. …