Close to 1,500 Londoners who attempted to vote for their Mayor and London Assembly members at polling stations earlier this year were unable to do so because they did not possess a valid form of photographic identification and then failed to return later in the day.
Figures released by 25 of the capital’s 33 local authorities show that a total of 5,065 Londoners arrived at polling stations on 2 May without an approved form of documentation, of whom 1,436 did not come back later in the day.
A breakdown of the data (below), released by Len Duvall, leader of the London Assembly Labour group, shows that the borough of Enfield had the highest number of electors turned away (460), followed by Lewisham (383) and Lambeth (362), with, respectively, 29.35, 26.63 and 29.28 per cent of them coming back later with the ID required. There was an overall rate of returning successfully to vote of 28.15 per cent across the 25 local authorities.
Nearly 2.5 million votes were received altogether for mayoral candidates – 2,84,432 of them verified – of which close to 1.8 million were cast in person at ballot stations and just over 700,000 were postal ballots (see table below for London Assembly seat figures from London Elects), which indicates that only a tiny proportion of Londoners who wished to vote in person ended up unable to because they failed to produce valid identification.
However, an electoral Electoral Commission study of last year’s local elections outside London found that four per cent of people who didn’t vote in them failed to do so because of the Voter ID requirement, which had been introduced by the previous, Conservative, national government, suggesting it has a deterrent effect that reduces turnout.
Duvall said, “It is extremely worrying that so many Londoners were disenfranchised because of the previous government’s photo ID rules. Make no mistake: these rules were brought in because the last government thought it would keep away those people less likely to vote for them.”
He urged Londoners to either find the correct photo ID or obtain a Voter Authority Certificate ahead of the 2026 local elections in the capital.
OnLondon.co.uk provides unique coverage of the capital’s politics, development and culture. Support it for just £5 a month or £50 a year and get things for your money too. Details HERE. Threads. X/Twitter: On London and Dave Hill.