Voters across the country will have to show identification such as driving licences or passports before casting their ballot, under plans to be unveiled in the Queen's Speech.

Ministers are planning to introduce a legal requirement for voters to produce photographic ID, in order to safeguard against electoral fraud.

A new Electoral Integrity Bill will also limit the number of relatives for whom anyone can act as a proxy, and outlaw the "harvesting" of postal ballots by political parties and activists.

The proposed roll-out of a requirement for photo ID is likely to be opposed by Labour, which claimed that a series of pilot schemes resulted in some people being unable to vote and were a "blatant attempt" to "rig" elections.

However the Government will insist changes are needed to safeguard against fraud and corruption. The proposals draw on the recommendations of a major report by Sir Eric Pickles, the former Conservative Cabinet minister, in 2016, which said there was evidence of voter fraud “especially in communities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi background”. Sir Eric warned of concerns that cases had been ignored because of “over-sensitivities about ethnicity and religion”.