Electoral system shake-up could be second government scheme scuppered by Lords in as many days
A ‘rushed’ plan to change the way people register to vote in UK elections could be halted today, as the Lords consider blocking a second piece of Conservative Government legislation within two days.
Conservatives say the plan for ‘Individual Electoral Registration’, in which people register to vote individually, rather than having it done by the ‘head of the household’, is necessary to remove names from the electoral register where a person has moved, is dead or does not exist – as a way of tackling fraud.
But Labour and Liberal Democrat peers are backing the “fatal” motion blocking the government’s attempt to conclude the transition to individual electoral registration one year earlier than planned.
Opening the debate, Lib Dem peer Paul Tyler said the Electoral Commission (which had originally pushed for IER) was opposed to what the government was trying to do.
He said: “Parliament has a special responsibility to listen to the Electoral Commission by law. They remind us that we have not just the right but we have a duty to oppose this order.
“Ministers should be ashamed of this unilateral attempt to undermine the IER process, to skew the boundary review and in so doing to challenge the authority and integrity of the statutory independent commission set up precisely to advise us all on these issues.”
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Fingers crossed! If Cam-Borne loose again they will most surely do their best to close or mess up the House of Lords. I have always been against HoL in principle, but realise how much they are needed when any Arrogant government turns into a Rogue Government.
This piece of legislation is in the manifesto and there will certainly be trouble if it is blocked.
It’s being rushed through for no very good reason, though. That’s why some of the lords were objecting.
Something as key as this structural change has still to be administered and managed by somebody and I’m not confident that this Government have the interest of the voting public at heart. Certainly local government are not happy bunnies with the cutbacks and still being dumped upon further. Maybe the Cons sense they are not very popular and want to introduce some confusion in the ranks. At least the majority of honourable members of the voting public take voting seriously and under threat of fines etc make sure all their family are registered. Leaving it to individuals I personally feel will lose more voters than it gains and be more admin heavy……….or maybe that’s the point.
I certainly hope they do scupper this rush-through. I only wish someone would scupper the whole change. It is nothing but a blatant ploy to keep the Tories’ vote up. The sort of folk that vote for them are generally those who would register and have easy access to the means to do so. They are hoping that the plebs (their attitude not mine) and youngsters, more likely to be Labour voters, will be too apathetic to bother. We have to keep pushing the need to register, grinding in the fact that every single vote matters. The referendum in Scotland really brought issues to people, especially younger ones, and upped the vote considerably. We need something similar, UK wide, to politicise the voters the Tories are trying to disenfranchise.
Opposition peers in the House of Lords have failed in efforts to inflict another defeat on the government, this time over electoral registration.
Peers rejected a Lib Dem attempt to block moves to accelerate the full switchover to individual registration.
Yeah, I already published an article.
The real and slightly hidden reason why the parties are in a tizz over this is not the disenfranchisement of voters. Labour are concerned because this electoral roll is the one to be used for the boundary changes and the Conservatives are concerned for opposite reasons. The fall in voter registration will hit Labour constituencies the most. Labour and Conservatives have much to gain and lose over voter numbers in constituencies.
What, the Conservatives are concerned because this electoral roll will NOT be used for the boundary changes?
And who says there will be a fall in voter registration, with Labour out in force to ensure it doesn’t happen, despite the Tories’ worst intentions?
They have to go now before there is anarchy and people will get hurt by this bunch of nazis they are not real, no human could behave the way they do.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/02/labour-launches-drive-to-register-voters-as-boundaries-get-redrawn
Labour is launching an urgent voter registration drive as it warns that the electoral register at the end of the year will form the basis of redrawn constituency boundaries for the 2020 election, which are likely to result in a big fall in the number of Labour-held seats………
….But it will be easier for the government to push the reforms through this time since the legislation has been passed. If no action is taken the next boundary review will start early next year.