Prime Minister: scrap unfair voter ID laws 

Last week, the Runnymede Trust joined a wide range of NGOs, charities, writers, poets, artists, musicians, actors, campaigners and activists in signing an open letter urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to repeal the unfair voter ID laws. 

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Dear Prime Minister, 

We, the undersigned, write to urge you to repeal the unfair Voter ID laws brought in under the last Government. 

More than 400,000 were prevented from voting on the day you became Prime Minister. 6.5% of voters of colour reported being turned away from the polls at least once.

The appalling statistics and stories coming out of election day are clear: these anti-democratic laws were an attack on Black and Brown people, and other marginalised communities. They do nothing to further democracy. 

Polling shows that minority communities were 2.5 times more likely to be stopped from voting than white people. Yet again, our democracy is working against us, rather than for us.

We know that the last Government put this law in place to further their own party political interests. They knew it was more often poor, Black and Brown people that don’t have the right ID. The former Conservative Minister Jacob Rees Mogg himself even described it as an attempt at “gerrymandering.”

These laws are an attack on the democratic rights of people of colour, and leave people without a say in the running of our country. Our right to vote is even more important at a time when over half of Black children are living in poverty in Britain. People have been denied a say in shaping our country’s future. This has to change before the next election.

Voter ID rules represent a solution no one asked for, to a problem that didn’t exist. Just 0.1% of voter fraud allegations between 2017-2022, when this law was introduced, resulted in a conviction. Two people convicted, Prime Minister. And that was a period covering not one but two general elections. And yet hundreds of thousands have just been prevented from engaging in democracy. 

It’s not using a sledge hammer to crack a nut, it’s bringing in a wrecking ball. Rather than spending £180 million of taxpayers' money every decade on unnecessary guidance and clamping down on a non-existent problem, we should simply let people vote – and celebrate them doing so. As the UK’s new Prime Minister, that historic responsibility falls to you. 

It doesn’t have to be like this. In many countries, people are placed automatically on their electoral register. That should happen here – but instead in the UK, the previous Government put obstacles in people’s way. The result: historically low turnout.

In a democracy, every vote should count. It’s time our communities got their vote back.

Prime Minister, please scrap voter ID laws, and look urgently at implementing automatic voter registration. 

Signed,

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Adjoa Andoh, Actor

Afua Hagan, Journalist and broadcaster

Angela McLeary, Lived experience campaigner

Anish Kapoor, Artist

Asha Haji, Global tech founder, advisor

Caleb Femi, Writer, filmmaker and photographer

Caroline Tosal-Suprun, Network Manager, Structural Inequalities Alliance

David Harewood OBE, Actor

David Weaver, Chair of Operation Black Vote board

Ekow Eshun, Writer and curator

Femi Oluwole, Human rights & Anti-Brexit campaigner and writer

Gary Younge, Professor and journalist

George The Poet, Spoken word artist and podcaster

Godfried Donkor, Artist

Gracie Mae Bradley, Writer and ex-Director of Liberty

Hope Ikpoku, Actor/musician 

Hugh Quarshie, Actor 

India Amarteifio, Actor

Jabeer Butt , Chief Executive, Race Equality Foundation

Jackie Kay, Poet and author

Jacqueline Taiwo, Registered Voter

Kamila Shamsie, Writer and novelist

Kanya King CBE, CEO MOBO Org & MOBOLISE

Kemi Alemoru, Journalist

Kingsley Ben-Adir , Actor

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith MBE, Actor

Kolbassia Haoussou, Director of Survivor Empowerment, Freedom from Torture

Larry Achiampong, Artist

Lennie James, Actor and screenwriter

Sir Lenny Henry, Actor, comedian and writer

Liz Davies, Emeritus professor 

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Actor

Meka Beresford, Head of Policy, Action for Race Equality

Minnie Rahman, CEO, Praxis

Misan Harriman, Photographer and Chair of the Southbank Centre

Naomi Ackie, Actor

Naomi Evans, Co-Founder Everyday Racism

Nels Abbey, Writer

Noma Dumezweni, Actor

Paterson Joseph, Actor and author

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, aka Lady Phyll (she/her), CEO and Co-Founder of UK Black Pride

Reni Eddo-Lodge, Author

Ronx IKHARIA , Doctor, author, activist

Saba Shafi, CEO, The Advocacy Academy

Shabna Begum, CEO, Runnymede Trust

Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, Political & women's rights activist

Sophie Okonedo, Actor

Thomas J Price, Artist

Tiernan Douieb, Writer and comedian 

Timi Okuwa , CEO, Black Equity Organisation

Dr Wanda Wyporska, CEO, Safe Passage International

Zak Ové, Artist

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Join the fight for racial justice: support the Runnymede Trust’s work by making a donation.

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Photo: © iStock/VV Shots