Once again the Conservative government has been illegally changing the rules without asking Parliament. When will we see someone go to jail for this?

The latest case concerns the voter ID trial that took place in five constituencies during the local elections last month.

Voters were asked to bring photo ID, or two items showing their address from a list of approved documents.

The trial was an unmitigated disaster. It led to the exclusion of 3,981 people from polling stations in constituencies where not a single person had been accused of voter ID fraud in the last decade.

In 2017, only 28 cases of voter ID fraud were logged, among 45 million votes cast.

You can see that the number of exclusions was totally disproportionate to the size of the issue.

And nobody can tell how many people were put off trying to vote because of the voter ID trial, so the results are not reliable in any way.

Nevertheless, Cabinet Office ministers have hailed it a success – which suggests that they were more interested in putting off people who might vote for a party other than the Conservatives than in upholding the law.

And now we see that they may have even broken the law themselves.

Barristers Antony Peto QC and Natasha Simonsen have concluded that the Cabinet Office may have acted outside the scope of the relevant law – the Representation of the People Act 2000.

They said the wording of the Act makes it clear that changing voting methods by secondary legislation, rather than by Parliamentary vote, is only permissible in order to make voting easier – not harder, as the Tories have done.

So the voter ID scheme is likely to have been beyond the scope of the law.

This is a common occurrence since the Conservatives took office in 2010.

They think the law does not apply to them – even when it comes to changing it.

That’s why This Writer certainly hopes a legal challenge will happen and a judge will have a chance to rule against Theresa May and her Cabinet Office of criminals.

Let’s see one of them jailed. That might make the other think twice.

Source: UK’s voter ID trial in local elections could be illegal – barristers | Law | The Guardian

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:

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

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!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

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: