THE Tories were accused of voter suppression today after thousands of people were stopped from taking part in the local elections due to not having voter ID.

Interim analysis from the Electoral Commission found that around 14,000 people did not vote after being unable to show an accepted form of photo ID during England’s local elections in May.

Commission officials said the data suggested “significantly more” people were likely to have not turned out because of the policy.

Craig Westwood, the independent watchdog’s director of communications, added there was “concerning” evidence that disabled and unemployed people were “more likely than other groups to give a reason related to ID for not voting.”

The commission’s report stated that voter awareness of needing to show photo ID to vote at a polling station “was lowest among younger age groups, black and minority ethnic communities and those who said they never vote in local elections.”

For those aged between 18 and 24, as well as those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds, the figure was 82 per cent.

Electoral Reform Society director of policy an research Dr Jess Garland said: “Voting is a fundamental democratic right and one person being stopped from casting their rightful vote is one too many.

“The government needs to scrap this ill-thought-through and unnecessary scheme to prevent similar scenes unfolding at a general election.

“Provisions also need to be put in place to properly monitor the impact of voter ID on the upcoming by-elections, especially as a number of them are being held in areas that did not hold local elections this year.”

A Momentum spokesperson said that the evidence on voter ID was “crystal clear,” telling the Morning Star: “There are next to no reports of voter fraud in the UK, but thousands upon thousands were disenfranchised by the Tories’ introduction of voter ID, a blatant and desperate act of voter suppression.

“The next Labour government must repeal this anti-democratic legislation, alongside other repressive laws which have criminalised peaceful protest.

“Nothing less than British democracy is at stake.”

Disability Rights UK head of policy Fazilet Hadi said that the findings “demonstrate how discriminatory the provision is, and how it disproportionately impacts disabled voters.”

She told the Morning Star: “If people don’t have any of the accepted forms of photo ID, then it is extremely likely that they experience real and significant barriers in applying for ID.

“To require this group of people to apply for a voter authority certificate makes absolutely no sense, hence the relatively small application rate.”

Ms Hadi called on the government to carefully review the impact and reverse the requirement.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “No legitimate voter should be locked out of democracy but that has been the effect of the Tories’ failed voter ID regulations.  

“It’s particularly alarming that under-represented groups look to have been more likely to have denied their say by these new barriers to voting.

“These strict rules are having a chilling effect on democracy.”

Former Tory minister Jacob Rees-Mogg in May suggested that requiring a photo ID to vote was an attempt to “gerrymander” which “came back to bite” his party. 

Ms Rayner said his “admission that this shabby scheme was designed to rig the rules to lock voters out revealed the cold truth behind it.”

She urged ministers to conduct a “comprehensive review into this discredited policy” without “more dither and delay.”

SNP Cabinet Office spokesperson Kirsty Blackman MP said the analysis showed voter ID laws posed a “damaging threat to democracy in the UK.”

She said: “There was no need to impose these restrictive rules in the first place — and Tory MPs have admitted they were introduced in an attempt to gerrymander elections by suppressing votes.”

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “It’s vital we keep our democracy secure, prevent the potential for voter fraud, and bring the rest of the UK in line with Northern Ireland, which has had photo identification to vote in elections since 2003.”