‘The free voter ID scheme has utterly failed.’
Democracy campaigners are warning that applications for a free voter ID are at nowhere near the levels required, undermining voting rights.
The last Tory government introduced voter ID requirements, in a bid to tackle what it said was voter fraud. Democracy campaigners and civil rights groups warned that the rules would have a disproportionate impact on marginalised and minority communities.
Following the general election last year, the Electoral Commission said that around 16,000 people could not vote because of the ID requirement and others were put off from voting entirely.
Its polling also showed 4% of those who chose not to vote said the law was part of their reason for not participating – with those from poorer backgrounds most likely to cite not having accepted ID.
Those who do not have ID can apply for a ‘Voter Authority Certificate’ for free.
However, figures cited by Unlock Democracy, a campaign group which fights for a more inclusive and participatory democracy, say that by Wednesday’s deadline the number of applications for a Voter Authority Certificate (VAC) since the general election had barely surpassed 20,000.
Unlock Democracy said: “Indeed since the free ID scheme was launched in January 2023, only 234,000 applications have been made.
“Compared with the local elections in 2023 and 2024, numbers are also way down. Since 1st March 2025, on average 170 VAC applications have been made each day, compared to almost 650 in the same period last year and over 1,100 in the run-up to the 2023 local elections, the first elections at which the scheme was in place.”
Tom Brake, Director of Unlock Democracy, commented: “The free voter ID scheme has utterly failed. More than two years after it was launched, most of the people who need ID still don’t have one.
“What’s so frustrating is how unnecessary this all is. As Angela Rayner has acknowledged, cases of voter fraud – the problem which voter ID is supposed to address – are few and far between. The VAC is a failed solution to a problem of politicians’ own making.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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