Andrew Dismore

Data revealed by a Parliamentary Question from Labour’s Shadow London Minister, Sadiq Khan, has today revealed that more than 58,000 Barnet residents may be denied the opportunity to vote. The Government has changed the way voters are registered from households to individuals. As part of the move, the Government have conducted a dry run of matching individual voters records to other sources, including benefits and welfare records. In Barnet 58,211 people , including 20,940 Hendon residents, were not matched. Across London, the figure is almost 1.8 million. They will now have to register individually or else will not be able to vote on polling day. A lack of awareness of the changes means that millions of Londoners could be stripped of the vote without realising it.

Andrew Dismore, Labour London Assembly Member & Parliamentary Candidate for Hendon said:
“There is a real risk that many thousands of Hendon residents will be denied the vote as a result of the Government’s shambolic implementation of these changes. This is an affront to democracy especially as we have crucial council elections coming up next month, where the future of Barnet Council is in the balance.
We know Barnet council has a history of incompetent election administration and this is another example of how people can be denied the right to vote without being told.
I urge all Hendon and Barnet residents to register to vote before the 6th May in order to take part in this year’s vital local elections”.

Sadiq Khan, Labour’s Shadow London Minister, said:
“The Government has chosen to speed up the move to individual electoral registration and has stripped away the safeguards designed to prevent large numbers of eligible voters losing their vote. This data shows the horrifying impact this Government’s actions could have on the capital’s democracy.
And we know that the kinds of voters who’ll lose their votes in London are young people, students, renters, the poor and the marginalised. These are groups who are already often on the fringes of society – we should be doing all we can to get them involved in democracy not make it more difficult. The vandalism this could cause to the city’s democracy unless the Government acts now is truly alarming.”

 

1. The full answer to Sadiq’s Parliamentary Question can be seen here.