The Conservatives have admitted wrongly telling voters in Norwich that they do not need photo ID to vote in next week’s local elections in England.
The campaign leaflet distributed in the Norfolk city was spotted by opposition campaigners and reported to the Electoral Commission after new voter ID rules came into force.
The local Conservative Federation has apologised and said a “printing error” was to blame for the leaflet sent out to voters containing false advice – but said the template came from CCHQ.
Simon Jones, chairman of the Norwich Conservative Federation, said the leaflet had been “centrally produced and printed” from the Tory party’s headquarters.
“Unfortunately, their content contained information which was out of date and did not reflect recent changes to voter ID,” said the local chairman.
Mr Jones said: “We delivered a small number of these before realising their mistake but suspended delivery as soon as the issue was identified.”
The local Tory chairman added: “We apologise, unreservedly, to the residents that received these and will be contacting them to correct the error as quickly as possible.”
The Liberal Democrats have written to Tory chairman Greg Hands demanding a party inquiry into the “highly misleading” local Tory leaflets.
The party’s local government spokesperson Helen Morgan asked: “Was the material for these leaflets centrally produced by Conservative campaign headquarters, and if so how many could have been printed across the country?”
The senior Lib Dem MP added: “How many more voters could have been wrongly told they don’t need photo ID to vote in next week’s local elections?
The government is under pressure over new rules after estimated that around 4 per cent of the population of Britain are unlikely to have a valid form of photo ID to vote – the equivalent of just over two million people.
It is the first time that photo identification has been compulsory for elections in England, but only certain kinds of ID will be accepted. A passport, driving licence photocard or blue badge are all valid, as well as an older person’s bus pass.
Rishi Sunak has insisted that the new ID checks will mean UK elections are “high-integrity processes” – despite no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud.
Only 85,000 people applied for a free voter authority certificate. Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said it was a “scandal” that “hundreds of thousands of people are being locked out of our democracy by the Tories”.
The Electoral Commission said extra staff will be deployed at some polling stations to make sure voters are aware of the new rules and to help manage queues.
But local government bosses have warned that staff could be “overwhelmed” and could face abuse from voters denied a vote at the 4 May elections across much of England.
