Chelsea pensioners vote at the polling station in the Royal Hospital. A driving licence or passport will be needed to cast a ballot under the pilot scheme

Voters will have to bring proof of their identity to polling stations for the first time next year as part of the government’s efforts to tackle electoral fraud.

Pilot schemes in various areas of the country will require voters to show a driving licence, passport or utility bill before they can cast a vote.

The plan, to be announced in the new year, follows a report by the former communities secretary Sir Eric Pickles. He claimed that “politically correct over-sensitivities about ethnicity and religion” had led to the state turning a blind eye to fraud in elections.

Sir Eric, now the government’s anti-corruption tsar, said that Britain’s “trust-based” voting system was no longer tenable and called for the introduction of identity checks on voters. Ministers