What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

More than one in FIVE polling stations turned away voters for not having ID during a hated Tory trial, a volunteer group says.

The astonishing claim would suggest more people were turned away in five areas than ALL last year's in-person voter fraud cases in the entire country put together.

Five areas, Bromley, Gosport, Swindon, Watford and Woking, piloted the anti-fraud scheme in yesterday's local elections.

Voters were told to show their polling card or full photo ID, depending on which area they lived in.

But reports swiftly emerged of people being turned away. Peter White, a 76-year-old man who has lived in Bromley for 40 years, said he was “shocked” to be turned away because he did not have a bank card or passport.

(Image: PA)

The Electoral Commission is running a full review of the pilot which will report back later this year.

However, just minutes after polls closed, the Democracy Volunteers group published a shocking snap report on just how many people it claims were turned away.

The report claims voters were refused a ballot paper because they did not have the correct ID in 21% of polling stations.

This was equal to about 1.7% of all voters across the five pilot areas being turned away, the group claimed.

The Democracy Volunteers study does NOT count whether any or all of those voters came back with the correct ID, so it may overstate the problem.

It comes after campaigners repeatedly warned voter ID checks would disenfranchise the poor and ethnic minorities, raising fears over people like the Windrush generation.

(Image: PA)

Tory ministers said the checks would reduce fraud but critics called them a "sledgehammer to crack a nut".

The Electoral Commission says there were only 21 cases of alleged in-person voter fraud in 2014, 44 in 2016, and 28 in 2017 - just 0.000063% per vote cast.

Democracy Volunteers said it sent observers to 243 polling stations in the five trial areas - 56% of all those possible.

There were 15 UK observers and 14 from other countries including France, Hungary, Russia and Ireland.

Democracy Volunteers also identified one possible case of "personation" fraud - where someone tries to vote pretending to be someone else - in Bromley.

(Image: bbc.co.uk)

Labour Shadow Cabinet minister Cat Smith said: "There was absolutely no case for introducing voter ID in the first place but after yesterday’s fiasco, it is impossible for the Government to justify rolling it out.

"After completely ignoring a number of serious warning signs, the Government decided to pilot discriminatory measures which denied people their right to vote.

"We cannot allow the Conservative Party to undermine our democracy, which is why Labour is calling on the Government to scrap their voter ID plans as a matter of urgency.”