CCHQ inquiry needed into Tory leaflet telling voters they don't need photo ID

26 Apr 2023

The Liberal Democrats have written to the Conservative Party Chairman Greg Hands, demanding an inquiry into local Tory leaflets wrongly telling voters they don’t need photo ID to vote in next week’s local elections.

The local Norwich Conservative Federation has admitted distributing the leaflets which incorrectly stated that “you don’t need to take any ID in order to vote.”

The Liberal Democrats called on the Conservative Party to investigate how these leaflets were printed and delivered, and what safeguards were being put in place to prevent this happening again.

It comes after figures revealed just 85,000 of the 2 million people who lack the right ID to vote applied for a free Voter Authority Certificate.

Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

“Not content with disenfranchising people through their divisive and unnecessary voter ID plans, it appears the Conservatives have been wrongly telling people they don’t need photo ID to vote. It shows they are treating voters with total contempt.

“The Conservative Party must launch a proper inquiry to get to the bottom of how these highly misleading leaflets wsere printed and distributed.

“Was the material for these leaflets centrally produced by Conservative campaign headquarters, and if so how many could have been printed across the country? How many more voters could have been wrongly told they don’t need photo ID to vote in next week’s local elections?

“We need urgent answers to these questions, or the Conservative Party will surely have no choice but to scrap their voter ID measures before anyone is unfairly turned away from the polling station.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor

Full letter to Greg Hands below

Dear Mr Hands,

I am writing to request that you launch an urgent internal inquiry into the leaflets distributed by the Conservative Party in Norwich stating incorrectly that “You don't need to take any ID in order to vote, so long as you are registered.”

Your Government’s new voter ID law poses a serious threat to the delivery of elections and public trust in our democracy. According to the Government’s statistics, just 85,698 people applied for a ‘Voter Authority Certificate’ by yesterday’s deadline – less than 5% of the 2.1 million voters estimated to lack the necessary photo ID.

Millions of people risk being disenfranchised by this law – and that risk is exacerbated when voters are incorrectly told by your party that they do not need ID to vote.

There should be an urgent inquiry by the Conservative Party to establish:

How and why this false information was put onto leaflets and distributed to voters.
How many leaflets were distributed with this false information on them.
What steps the party has taken to prevent this or any other false information being put onto its leaflets in future.
What training party staff members have received about the requirements of the Government’s new voter ID law.
What steps the party is taking to ensure that voters who received this false information know what the Government’s voter ID law actually means for them.

The results of that inquiry should be published in full as soon as possible. I look forward to reading them.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Morgan MP

Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson