This Labour government has made the Representation of the People Bill a crucial part of their project. This bill lowers the voting age to 16, introduces automatic voter registration, changes election finance regulations and makes changes to identification requirements for voting. The Conservative Party have been clear that when Parliament makes changes to elections and the franchise, it is making structural changes to the way governments are elected. Therefore, changes to those rules should only be made after adequate consultation. The government has neglected to do so in this case and that is why I have voted against this bill at every stage.
The United Kingdom already has very stringent rules in place to protect our elections from foreign influence. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 places detailed safeguards on the conduct of our elections. This includes the provision that political parties can only accept donations from voters or organisations registered in this country. Crucially, that bill was carried out after a consultation involving other political parties and much scrutiny in Parliament. I believe in the principle that changes to our elections should enjoy cross-party support and examination, and this has not been done. This convention exists for good reason and ensures that any government down the line does not pursue similarly partisan measures to help them win at the ballot box.
By introducing automatic voter registration, the government risks adding new opportunities for fraud, as the names added to the register come from different data sources that may not be up to date or accurate. Moreover, the method by which this will be enacted means that only some parts of the country will have automatic voter registration ahead of the next general election, and others will not. In doing so, the government are effectively choosing which parts of the country have ‘expanded turnout’, something they argue will be a byproduct of this legislation, and which do not.
To be clear, we support measures that genuinely strengthen the resilience of our democratic system. I share your view on the importance of strong campaign finance regulation, even more so in light of recent developments regarding Reform UK’s dubious funding sources. With donations of over £15m from Thailand-based billionaire Christopher Harborne and the recent Channel 4 documentary that showed Reform’s commitment to circumventing our laws, we still have some way to go to close loopholes and improve the integrity of our elections. However, this must be done properly, in partnership with the relevant parties and organisations that these changes will involve. The protection of our democracy is too important to be pursued through measures whose consequences have not been fully thought through.
I was proud to support the Elections Act 2022 which the last Conservative government introduced. This law further restricted third party-spending to UK-based entities, ensuring that campaign spending can come only from sources that have a legitimate interest in our elections. In contrast, this is a government who have stressed the importance of defending our democracy while trying to cancel local elections for two years and disenfranchising four million voters. They also changed the electoral system for mayors to help Labour candidates win and changed the laws on election pilots behind closed doors. I will always work constructively with the government to defend the UK from foreign interference, but this blatantly partisan and poorly thought through bill is not the way to do so.
Mandatory Voter ID:
Maintaining trust in the integrity of our elections will always be a priority for myself and the Conservative Party. In the last government, I voted for the Elections Act, delivering on our manifesto promise to end election fraud.
I am therefore concerned that this Labour government is pushing forward with its Representation of the People Bill. This weakens the protections the last Conservative government put in place to secure our elections. The government plans to significantly expand the list of documents that certify your identity at the polling station to include UK-authorised bank cards. As we know, there are many organisations now offering no-ID accounts, where bank cards can be obtained without any identification requirement at all. This opens new vulnerabilities in our system including fraud, something the Conservative Party will always be opposed to. These measures actually damage trust in our elections, and I have therefore voted against them.
For guidance on accepted photo ID, see: https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/photo-id-youll-need