The Liberal Democrats have demanded that Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands launch an inquiry into how Tory campaign literature told voters they would not need to prove their identity at next week’s local elections.
The move comes after it was revealed that the local Norwich Conservative Federation had distributed leaflets which incorrectly stated that “you don’t need to take any ID in order to vote”.
Simon Jones, chairman of Norwich Conservatives, told i that the error occurred because his local campaigners downloaded a template from the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) “Campaign Toolkit”, which incorrectly stated voter ID was not required when polls open on 4 May.
However, election law introduced by the Government dictates that voters must now take an accepted form of ID with them to polling stations if they are to be permitted to cast their ballot.
“As a local Conservative Association, we delivered a small number of these before realising their mistake but suspended delivery as soon as the issue was identified,” Mr Jones said. “We apologise, unreservedly, to the residents that received these and will be contacting them to correct the error as quickly as possible.”
A spokesman for CCHQ told i that the templates were “no longer in use” but refused to confirm when they were taken off the party’s “Campaign Toolkit” or how many had been distributed across the country.
Despite repeated questioning on whether the templates had been available during the current local elections campaign the CCHQ spokesman said: “I cannot provide a timeline.”
The Lib Dems 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 two million people who lack the right ID to vote applied for a free Voter Authority Certificate by Tuesday’s deadline.
Helen Morgan MP, the Lib Dems’ spokeswoman on local government, 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 were printed and distributed.”
Ms Morgan added that the Conservatives should confirm how many of the campaign leaflets had been printed across the country, and how many voters were “wrongly told they don’t need photo ID to vote” in the 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,” added Ms Morgan.
Valid ID includes a passport, driving licence, proof of age card and older people travel cards. However, student ID cards and younger people travel cards are not accepted.
Voter ID was brought in by the Government to prevent voter fraud. Among the millions who voted there was one conviction for voter fraud in 2019 and one in 2017.
