- Tuesday, April 23, 2024
By: Pooja Shrivastava
LABOUR’s shadow minister for democracy, Cat Smith, has slammed the UK government’s Elections Bill, brought before parliament on Monday (5), saying that the proposal to make photo identification mandatory for voting will make it harder for Asian and minority ethnic Britons to vote and will lock them out of democracy, media reports said.
Calling the changes proposed in the bill “a Trumpian tactic”, Smith claimed that the need for voter ID is a “total waste of taxpayers’ money” and the Conservatives are engaging in a “blatant voter suppression”.
“It doesn’t matter how the government tries to dress it up, these plans will make it harder for working-class, older and black, Asian and minority ethnic Britons to vote,” The Guardian quoted Smith in a report. “They know this is the case because their own research shows that millions of our fellow citizens lack photo ID in this country.”
Under its proposal Elections Bill, the government wants to make it mandatory for voters to have a photo ID- a passport, driving license, blue badge, travel pass with photo or a proof of age card- in order to vote, bringing the rest of the UK in line with Northern Ireland, where photo identification is used since 2003.
Claiming that the overhaul will make elections more secure by cracking down on in-person voter fraud, minister of state for the constitution and devolution, Chloe Smith, said: “The bill will strengthen the integrity of our elections, by increasing transparency, fairness and accountability; providing more protection for candidates and voters; and making our polls more inclusive.”
Experts reportedly feel that a requirement of all voters to carry identification might cost the taxpayer about £40 million over the next decade, pointing to a cabinet office-commissioned study released in May which claimed that more than two million voters might lack the necessary ID to take part in future elections.
Meanwhile, prime minister Boris Johnson has been warned by a survey that he might “accidentally disenfranchise” some of the Tory voters from the north of England if he chooses to push ahead with the plans of making photo id mandatory to cast votes.
According to a recent poll by YouGov, the impact of the proposed new rules regarding mandatory use of voter id during the polls will be felt greatest in the north of England – where one in 14 people are without any suitable form of photographic identification.
Pointing out that the northern voters- who otherwise have not voted Conservative in the past- had a contribution in Johnson’s 2019 and 2021 victories, head of international politics at YouGov, Marcus Roberts, warned No. 10 to be careful that “they don’t accidentally disenfranchise the very voters their recent wins owe so much to”.
