CONTROVERSIAL voter ID laws will be challenged by a legal activist group, it has been announced.
The Good Law Project has announced it will monitor the effects of the Tories’ voter ID laws – which critics say could see millions disenfranchised because they do not have the right form of identification – and challenge the plans in court.
Jo Maugham KC, the executive director of the organisation, said the new rules were a “needless act of sabotage against the universality of the franchise”.
They became law in 2022 and mean voters now need to prove their identity before casting their ballots.
Maugham said: “The voter ID rules are a really bad thing to happen in a democracy - a needless act of sabotage against the universality of the franchise.
“On the evidence, they cannot be explained otherwise than as an attempt to deny those likely to vote against the Government the ability to do so.
"They need to be challenged, in court. And this is exactly what we plan to do."
Critics of the plans said young people were more likely to be denied their right to vote by the rules, pointing out that while forms of ID such as an OAP bus pass or a 60+ Oyster Card are accepted at polling stations, 18+ Oyster Cards and 16-25 railcards are not.
The UK Government brought in a new voter authority certificate to make it easier for people to produce acceptable identification – but the Good Law Project said it estimated around 4% of the estimated 2.1 million people who did not have valid ID had applied for the certificate.
The Scottish Government is opposed to the plans, calling them “voter suppression” and in a vote early last year MSPs voted to refuse consent for the rules.
Voters north of the Border will not need to provide ID to cast their ballots in Scottish Parliament elections – though they will in UK General Elections.
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: "It’s vital we keep our democracy secure and anyone casting their vote in person for local elections will need to bring an accepted form of photographic identification.
“The vast majority of people already have a form of acceptable identification – which includes driving licences, blue badges, NUS Totum cards and Freedom passes.
“This change brings the rest of the UK in line with Northern Ireland, which has had photo identification to vote in elections since 2003, and will ensure that elections are better protected from the potential for voter fraud.”
