By Jerome Satterthwaite of South East Cornwall Labour Party

There has been much discussion of “British values” in recent years. Whatever your political persuasion, it is likely that a commitment to democracy – every adult’s right to take part in the democratic process within a fair and transparent electoral system – will figure high on your list. We look at other countries where elections are rigged and voter suppression is rife and are grateful that, here in the cradle of democracy, we have no such problems.
It may therefore come as a surprise to many that the Conservative Government is pressing on with its Election Bill, which makes photo ID mandatory for everyone going to the polling station to place their vote. The Government’s argument for introducing this legislation is that it reduces the risk of voter fraud. However, figures show that there was just one – yes, one – conviction for voter fraud in the 2019 General Election. Even senior Conservative Ruth Davidson describes it as “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist”.
Research by the Electoral Commission identifies 3.5 million voters as not having access to photo ID, most of whom are on low incomes, elderly, or from minority groups. Pilot projects from 2019 UK elections where photo ID was required show that hundreds were turned away, the majority of whom were from these groups. As Dennis Read, Director of Silver Voices, an independent charity for senior citizens, says: “We fear this is a Trumpian manoeuvre to limit voting by those who are not natural government supporters i.e. the most deprived members of communities including senior citizens in poverty.”
In essence, the Election Bill, being pushed through Parliament under cover of the pandemic, will politically disadvantage the already economically disadvantaged while shifting the electoral odds in the Tories’ favour. Alongside it we see proposed changes to constituency boundaries, which BBC analysis suggests are likely to benefit the Tory party, and other Government attempts to chip away at our democracy, such as its attacks on the judiciary, an unlawful attempt to prorogue Parliament, and the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which attempts to clamp down on the right to peaceful protest.
These may not seem like priorities when viewed against current problems such as the pandemic and the desperate state of our health and social care services, but we need to be vigilant to threats to the democracy that was hard won, which we all value and that we lose at our peril; any one of us can become the victim of a system that took away our democratic rights without us even knowing it was happening.