BORIS Johnson’s Tories are “dismantling democracy to keep themselves in power” through the introduction of voter ID laws, Scottish politicians have warned.
Green minister Lorna Slater sounded the alarm on Twitter ahead of the second reading of the Elections Bill in Westminster on Tuesday.
Her voice joins that of the SNP’s, whose human rights spokesperson hit out at the “regressive and Trumpian” election policy.
Estimates from the UK Government say that more than two million UK citizens will not have the correct ID to comply with the bill’s requirements to vote – effectively disenfranchising them.
READ MORE: Campaigners warn of ‘huge risks’ in Government’s voter ID plan
The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) also hit out at the Tory plans, saying they represent “staggeringly warped priorities that will only serve to silence voters”.
The fresh attacks on Johnson’s plans to introduce voter ID come after it was revealed that the scheme would cost somewhere between £65 million and £180m over the next 10 years, with a “central estimate” of £120m.
The ERS said this was much higher than the initially expected £20m per election, with costs coming from increased admin, higher staff requirements, training, and the need for new, larger, polling cards.
Commenting, SNP MP Brendan O’Hara (above) said: "The Tory government's regressive and Trumpian Voter ID bill must be ditched. The reality is that it threatens to undermine democracy and shut out marginalised communities.
"Rather than working to strengthen our democratic processes, the Tories have taken yet another page out of the Trump playbook with blatant voter suppression measures.
"The Electoral Reform Society has already warned that the Bill will lead to millions of people being 'effectively locked out of democracy' and could lead to voter 'disenfranchisement on an industrial scale.'
"The SNP will oppose this bill and it is vital that the UK government heeds the warnings and abandons its vote-rigging proposals immediately."
Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater also drew comparisons with across the pond, where gerrymandering of voting districts has been said to distort true democratic outcomes.
The @Conservatives doing American style vote suppression. Dismantling democracy to keep themselves in power.
— Lorna Slater (@lornaslater) September 7, 2021
Without proportional representation it's practically impossible to get rid of them. I'm glad Scotland has a more functional democracy but we need independence as well. https://t.co/vWUDoe7HO6
Slater wrote: “The @Conservatives doing American style vote suppression. Dismantling democracy to keep themselves in power.
“Without proportional representation it's practically impossible to get rid of them. I'm glad Scotland has a more functional democracy but we need independence as well.”
The Prime Minister had previously expressed firm opposition to any form of such ID laws.
He wrote in 2004: “If I am ever asked, on the streets of London, or in any other venue, public or private, to produce my ID card as evidence that I am who I say I am … then I will take that card out of my wallet and physically eat it in the presence of whatever emanation of the state has demanded that I produce it.”
Alistair Carmichael, the LibDem MP for Orkney and Shetland, wrote in April: “We are all accustomed to extravagant storytelling from our Prime Minister, followed inevitably by shameless betrayal. I, for one, would like to see Boris Johnson fulfil his 2004 promise – and choke down his ID card in front of the whole nation.”
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said previously: "Stealing someone’s vote is stealing their voice and fraud in our elections is something we cannot allow room for. So we are preventing this from happening by requiring photographic identification.”
They added that any associated costs would be “worth paying to ensure our democratic process remains secure”.
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