The Liberal Democrats are to call for the abolition of voter ID at polling stations, describing the policy as part of a “Tory war on the younger generation”.
The Lib Dems will say in their election manifesto that they will “lead the charge” to ditch the policy in the next parliament because it is costly, unnecessary, is addressing a problem that does not exist, and makes it harder for young people to vote.
Under rules first introduced by the Tory government in May 2023, people eligible to vote have to produce some form of photo ID to cast their ballots, including in general elections, byelections, local elections, and police and crime commissioner elections.
Acceptable forms of photo ID include passports, driving licences and travel cards for the 60-plus age group, including 60-plus Oyster cards used to travel in London. But Oyster cards for young people are not allowed, leading to accusations that the elderly – who are more likely to vote Tory – were being favoured.
The changes were brought in to stamp out what the Conservative government claimed was an alarming level of voter fraud. Despite this claim, the number of offences or suspected offences has been shown to be tiny. A large number of people have either been put off voting or have been turned away at polling stations, having been unaware of the rules.
Last year, the former Tory cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said the plan had backfired on the Conservatives because many older people were the ones most often caught out without the correct ID.
The Lib Dems deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, said: “We opposed the introduction of voter ID at every stage in the Commons and Lords, so we will be leading the charge to scrap it after the next election.
“The statistics speak for themselves. After the last general election, there were only about 33 allegations of impersonation out of tens of millions of votes cast. Rees-Mogg had to admit it had backfired.”
She said that in the context of other announcements that the Tories had made in the last few days, whether it was plans to reintroduce national service or scrap "rip-off" university degrees it all added up “to a war on young people and using young people as a political football in a desperate attempt to shore up their vote going into the election”.
The government’s own assessment of the cost of introducing the voter ID policy put the total as high as £120m over a decade.
The Lib Dems say this could pay for 180,000 NHS Talking Therapy courses, to treat those with mental health problems.
