Electoral Commission ignored as new roll is pushed through

Against the advice of the independent Electoral Commission, the government has reduced the time frame for establishing the new electoral roll. Instead of finalising the new roll by 1 December 2016, local authorities have been told that the deadline is now this December. Estimates suggest that millions of voters might disappear from the roll.

On BBC Wales’ Sunday Politics programme, Phil Thompson, head of research at the Electoral Commission, said: “Our view was this is a risk – you’re taking people off the register in December who are still eligible to vote and if you take them off you’re putting the onus on them to re-register before that set of polls.”

The new checks on voters and the move to individual, rather than household, registration, mean that more transient populations living in private rented accommodation will be most likely to find themselves removed from the rolls and forced to re-register. Labour and the LibDems point out that such populations are overwhelmingly concentrated in non-Conservative seats.

London hit hard

Six of the eight worst affected local authorities will be in London, which stands to lose some 415,000 voters. Hackney alone estimates a 23 per cent reduction in the number of voters.

One effect will be that the number of people eligible to vote in largely Labour-voting boroughs will be reduced in the run-up to the London Mayor and London Assembly elections.

The new electoral roll will also form the basis of new parliamentary constituencies, as the Boundary Commission redraws constituencies – hitting Labour-voting areas the hardest. Despite a massive increase in population, London, for example could lose five or more parliamentary seats.

The redrawn constituency boundaries will also see central government funds being reallocated, with even deeper cuts to a number of traditionally anti-Conservative areas.