Islington equalities chief slams Conservatives over ‘voter suppression’ at July’s election

Town Hall equalities boss Cllr Sheila Chapman. Photograph: Islington Council

Islington councillors have blasted policies that they claim led to low turnout at the general election in July – with one directly accusing the previous Conservative government of “voter suppression”.

At last night’s meeting of the full council, Labour’s Cllr Sheila Chapman, cabinet member for equalities, communities and inclusion, said mandatory voter ID had seen nearly 200 residents turned away from polling stations.

This was the first general election that required citizens to provide ID to vote, after the rule was introduced by the Elections Act 2022 under Boris Johnson’s premiership.

Cllr Chapman said 192 people were refused due to not having the necessary documents, and that 56 chose not to return with one.

“Our neighbours, our residents, were effectively disenfranchised because they didn’t have photo ID that was deemed acceptable.”

She added that it is still unknown how many people were put off going to the polls at all because of the new rule.

“This was an illiberal solution to, honestly, a non-existent problem of voter fraud. Even Jacob Rees-Mogg said the government was trying to gerrymander the electoral system,” she said.

“But I wonder if the tide is beginning to turn?”

Last week, the Electoral Commission recommended that ministers “expand” the ID people can use, after finding that as many as 750,000 people may not have voted in July due to not having the right documentation.

The watchdog also said the government should consider allowing people with valid ID to vouch for others who do not.

Cllr Chapman said Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s previous suggestion that he would review mandatory ID was “good news”.

Starmer also vowed that Labour would roll out automatic voter registration in government to raise turnout, along with giving the vote to over-16s.

“Islington Council will be working with the Labour government to make sure barriers [to democracy] are removed as far as possible,” Cllr Chapman said.

In May, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was comfortable with the “entirely reasonable” voter ID rule.

His defence came after former Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested the party’s attempt to “gerrymander” had backfired.

Rees-Mogg said “we made it harder for our own voters” and “upset a system that worked perfectly well”.

Cllr Chapman’s sharp criticism came in response to a question from her Labour colleague Cllr Paul Convery, who heaped further condemnation on the Tories for “deliberately degrading” public confidence.

He said: “I have to say that, on the numbers you’ve given, 0.15 per cent eligible to cast their vote were turned away.

“That speaks to the commendable work of the electoral returning officer and all of her staff, and the communications campaign that alerted residents in Islington to the requirement.”

But despite the 2024 general election being an “exciting” one,  Convery said, turnout in the borough declined by around 11 per cent in Islington South, and by four per cent in Islington North.

“It does seem to me that reduced voter turnout comes on top of projects like voter suppression that the Tories tried, and years in which public confidence in the electoral process and political institutions was deliberately degraded,” he added.

“The rule of law was ignored, institutions were belittled. In the phrase of Keir Starmer, the Tories took voters for mugs.

“Well, the mugs won in the end.”