Party points out 7.5% of electorate may not have right kind of ID to exercise right to vote after ministers unveil trial plans

Millions of people may be disenfranchised by the government’s plans to trial asking for ID in order to vote, Labour has said.

Cat Smith, Labour’s shadow minister for voter engagement, raised concerns that 7.5% of the electorate may not have the right kind of identification in order to exercise their right to vote.

“Labour supports measures to tackle electoral fraud and will be backing a number of the reasonable proposals planned by the government,” she said on Tuesday. “However, requiring voters to produce specific forms of photo ID risks denying millions of electors a vote.

“A year ago the Electoral Commission reported that 3.5 million electors – 7.5% of the electorate – would have no acceptable piece of photo ID. Under the government’s proposals, these voters would either be denied a vote entirely, or in other trial areas, required to produce multiple pieces of ID, ‘one from group A, one from group B’.

“The government should be doing all it can to encourage lawful voting and ensure a high turnout, not putting extra hurdles in the way. The plans for photo ID are like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut, potentially denying a vote to millions.”

Smith’s comments came after former London mayor Ken Livingstone said the proposed measures would be a barrier for people who had no driving licence or passport.

The veteran politician also suggested there could be an element of gerrymandering to help the Conservatives’ electoral aims because the demand for ID would “hit the poorest” who might never have applied for a passport or driving licence.

“That, I suspect, like the decision last year to knock a lot of people off the electoral register, is going to hit the Labour party,” he said.

This was disputed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme by Chris Skidmore, the minister for the constitution, who said he did not agree that asking people to verify their identity would hit levels of electoral participation.

He said the plans would be trialled in 18 areas during the local elections in 2018 to see whether it was best for people to be asked for proof of address, such as utility bills, or driving licences and passports.

Skidmore also dismissed the idea that electoral fraud was associated with any one community, although he said racial and cultural sensitivities may have discouraged the police from properly investigating earlier in the case of the Tower Hamlets mayoralty.

Voters in local elections will be required to show ID in anti-fraud trials Read more

He added: “I think when you look at elections actually when it comes to presenting ID … already people turn up at a polling booth presenting their polling card thinking they have to provide ID. Many listeners will entirely agree that when it comes to voting it is one of the most important transactions you can make as an individual and in the 21st century many transactions require proof of ID.”

Asked whether the Cabinet Office had carried out research to check how many people have no ID, Skidmore said: “When it comes to the pilot we will be very carefully calibrating those so that there will be two models – one based on driving licence, passport, photographic ID, and the other will be based on utility bills and proof of registration.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ken Livingstone. Photograph: Roger Askew/Rex/Shutterstock

The plan was criticised as a “sledgehammer to crack a nut” by the Electoral Reform Society, a pressure group campaigning for reform of the democratic system.

“The government should think very carefully before introducing barriers to voting,” said its chief executive, Katie Ghose. “There is simply no evidence to suggest that electoral fraud is widespread across the UK. Where it has occurred it has been isolated and should be tackled locally.

“Raising barriers to democratic participation could just put people off voting – and evidence from the US shows that it’s generally those already most excluded from the political process that are worst affected by strict ID laws. The government should think again and look at all the evidence on voter ID before deciding to use this blunt instrument.”

The Cabinet Office announced on Tuesday that the trials would start from 2018 after a report on voter fraud by Sir Eric Pickles, the anti-corruption tsar and former communities secretary.

Ministers will also consider Pickles’ recommendations for measures to check the nationality of voters, creating safe zones around polling stations to stop intimidation, and ending vote “harvesting”, in which postal votes are submitted in bulk.

Some of the key recommendations under consideration include a ban on the handling of completed postal ballots by political campaigners, limiting it to family members or carers, and requiring people to re-register for postal votes every three years.

Although voter fraud is not thought to be widespread, the Cabinet Office said it planned to bring forward new guidance for electoral registration officers who conduct the polls.

The pilots for ID in polling stations are to be conducted at the local elections in May 2018. Voters in those areas will be required to bring ID to prove who they are before they can vote, to prevent anyone fraudulently taking another person’s ballot paper.

Local authorities will be invited to apply to trial different types of identification, including forms of photo ID such as driving licences and passports, or formal correspondence such as a utilities bill to prove their address, backed by a signature check.

ID is already required at polling stations in Northern Ireland, where voters must bring an electoral ID card, but the rest of the UK is not considering introducing new forms of identification for voting.