Johnson introduced the 2022 elections bill while he was prime minister. By law, voters must bring a photo ID to vote.
The rules have been criticized by advocacy groups and the UK Electoral Commission, the country’s official election watchdog, which said they could prevent hundreds of thousands of people from voting in future elections. general elections.
Additionally, these people are more likely to be poorer, from minority ethnic backgrounds and disabled, the watchdog said. They are also less likely to vote for Johnson’s Conservative Party.
The rules are likely to remain in force during the next UK general election, which is expected to take place later this year. The Electoral Commission says the disenfranchising effect of the law will most likely be greater in a general election.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, another Johnson Brexit supporter who was also part of the government that introduced the restriction, admitted in 2023 that the rules were an attempt to “gerrymand” future elections for the Conservatives – but that they had backfired because older people, who are more likely to vote Conservative, but are also less likely to be aware of the changes.
“We found that the people who didn’t have ID were elderly and they were mostly voting Conservative,” he said. “So we made it difficult for our own voters and we disrupted a system that worked perfectly well. »
Even if Johnson pushes back the retirement age, he can’t really claim ignorance of the changes.
Politico
