Labour vow tonight to fight a voter fraud crackdown they say will “rig democracy in favour of the Conservative Party”.
Cat Smith announced the party will vote against the Tories’ entire Elections Bill, which will force all Brits to show ID at polling stations, at its second reading in Parliament on Tuesday.
In an interview with the Mirror, the shadow voter engagement minister branded the Bill an “unnecessary” clampdown that “copies from the Trump playbook” by hitting older, poorer and marginalised voters.
And she revealed the scheme would have disenfranchised her grandad Frank - who was illiterate and hid it for most of his life.
Ms Smith said: “My grandad never had a passport. The only time he ever left the country was to fight for his country in the Second World War.”
Tory ministers insist anyone without suitable ID will be able to apply for a “voter card” from their council.
But Ms Smith said of Frank, who worked at building firms and Barrow-in-Furness Market before his death aged 85: “If he could avoid filling out any kind of form and bureaucracy, he wouldn’t do it.
“He couldn’t write a shopping list - there’s no way he could’ve gone to the town hall and applied for a voter card to vote in elections.
“He would have been too embarrassed - he just would have stopped voting, frankly.”
Frank, who died when Ms Smith was 13, spent years avoiding reading her bedtime stories. Now 36, the MP only realised when he handed her a shopping list in block capitals, spelt wrongly and listing brand names copied off boxes - “Tetley”, not “tea”.
She added: “There’s an assumption that everyone is able to fill in a form. MPs are dealing with paperwork and forms all the time.
“But the reality is for many people it’s not a daily part of their lives, they don’t have the confidence, and filing in forms is traumatic and embarrassing.”
There were just 171 allegations of in-person voter fraud at a polling station from 2014 to 2019 - of which three led to a conviction.
Yet an estimated 2.1million registered voters do not have acceptable ID.
“You’re more likely to get struck by lightning three times than get ‘personated’ at a polling station,” Ms Smith said.
“The implementation of the policy’s going to cost millions of pounds every election.
“I think the government should be focused on tackling actual crime that’s affecting my constituents’ lives.
“Voting is safe and it is secure in Britain. Ministers actually should be promoting confidence in our elections and concentrating on getting millions of people who aren’t on the electoral roll registered to vote, instead of spreading these baseless scare stories that actually threaten our democracy and exclude people from taking part.”
Labour face an impossible task to defeat the Bill on Tuesday due to Boris Johnson ’s 83-strong majority.
Ms Smith urged more pro-civil liberties Tories to rebel like David Davis, who has branded voter ID an “illogical and illiberal solution to a non-existent problem”.
She told Tories “my door is open”, adding: “For any Conservative who is anti ID cards, this legislation flies in the face of that.”
Ms Smith slapped down the Cabinet Office’s insistence that Northern Ireland has used voter ID since 2003, saying: “there’s no evidence of anything like” the same issues in England, Scotland and Wales.
She insisted she was not trying to block some measures in the Bill, which will also crack down on postal vote “bundles” being handed in at polling stations and crack down harder on voter intimidation.
But she said Labour had no choice but to oppose the Bill in its entirety, saying: “It is part of a Conservative strategy, I think to change the rules - the way elections work - to benefit the Conservative Party.”
She claimed changes to overseas electors will allow Tory donors to fund campaigners from tax havens in a “dangerous loophole”.
And she branded new rules on spending by third party campaigners “a gag on trade unions and civil society”.
A Conservative spokesperson claimed there had been no impact on voter turnout in Northern Ireland.
The spokesperson said: "ID is already requested normally and reasonably in many areas of life, including by many constituency Labour parties, who require voter identification to vote in Labour Party selection meetings. The Labour Party’s NEC also mandates two forms of ID for any members joining an association which is in special measures.
"A local electoral card will be available free of charge from their local council for anyone who wants it."
It comes after Parliament’s respected Joint Committee on Human Rights warned the Bill may cause discrimination against disabled and elderly people.
MPs and peers said it was “regrettable” that the government failed to consider if ID checks would “disproportionately” put off people from certain communities.
And they called for “clear research” on how it will affect black, Asian and other ethnic minority people.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said in response to the report: "Stealing someone's vote is stealing their voice. Fraud in our elections is something we cannot allow room for, so we are stamping out potential for it to take place by requiring photographic identification.
"Our research, which draws on the most comprehensive data to date, shows that 99% of ethnic minorities already have a form of identification, as do 98% of those aged 70 or above. Local authorities will be legally required to provide a free voter card, for the small proportion of people who may not already have photo identification."
