The controversial Elections Bill has passed its third reading in the House of Commons, moving forward with drastic changes to the voting system.
Late on Sunday MPs voted by 325 to 234 in favour at the third reading on the bill, which includes proposals for mandatory voter ID, and gives ministers power over the independent Electoral Commission.
First-past-the-post voting would also be imposed in votes for elected mayors, in a change from the transferrable vote system used to elect the Mayor of London and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, among others – a change that some critics allege could give Conservatives a significant advantage in races where multiple left-wing and liberal candidates run.
The plans for mandatory voter ID have attracted significant opposition from rights groups, who allege that it would discriminate against marginalised groups less likely to have accurate and up-to-date IDs, including the homeless, those from black and minority ethnic communities, those on low incomes and transgender people.
The Government insists that those without ID would be able to register for a free voter card, and maintains that the interventions are necessary to tackle voter fraud – though reports have concluded there is no evidence of widespread voter impersonation in the UK, with just two people convicted for in-person voter fraud across the 2017 and 2019 elections.
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Kemi Badenoch, the Minister of State for Levelling Up Communities, said: “The Government are committed to increasing participation in our democracy and empowering all those eligible to vote to do so in a secure, efficient and effective way. An important part of that is ensuring that electoral services—be they registering to vote, applying for an absent vote or applying for a voter card—are as convenient and accessible as possible.”
Labour’s Lloyd Russell-Moyle questioned why the bill permits travel passes issued to the elderly to be used as voter ID but excluded those issued to young people, which Ms Badenoch claimed was due to required “robust checks”.
Tory MP David Davis, who rebelled on an amendment to remove voter ID provisions but obeyed the whip in voting for the third reading, joined critics by warning the legislation “risks undermining one of the most fundamental rights we have here in the UK – to vote freely without restriction.”
Shadow Minister for Levelling Up Alex Norris said: “This is a bad Bill. It is full of solutions in search of problems. Rather than opening up our democracy to greater participation, it will do the opposite, all the while further weakening our democracy to dodgy finance.
“It is conventional to call it Trumpian, but it is not even that. It is the sort of partial nonsense that can be seen in US statehouses: partisan leaders who just cannot help themselves, gerrymandering and seeking to tilt election outcomes by putting their thumb on the scale.”
The bill will now head to the Lords.