I should say, for the record, that I have never stood for election to a parish council or a PTA committee, let alone to high elected office. I should say that with some embarrassment, given that I am in this revising Chamber, but being
a member of a political party is a privilege. It is based on a shared understanding of more than just the broader values of a political project, whereas to be a citizen entitled to vote is a fundamental right, and that is the distinction. It is also a distinction with various commercial transactions, which we understand require a certain element of identification. I would be more persuaded by the point that the noble Lord is making by his probing if we had heard, in response to some hours of debate on previous occasions, evidence of a significant problem with identity fraud in our elections.
As with many things in life, there is a balance of risk to be judged here. The noble Lord, Lord Woolley of Woodford, who is unable to be here today, pointed out the one conviction for voter identity fraud. That is not enough evidence to introduce this level of hurdle, hoop or requirement when balanced against the research that has been ventilated in this Committee and that has been sent to all Peers about the likely outcomes of putting further obstacles, hurdles or disincentives to register in people’s way.
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This comes at a time when we are going into a fuel crisis, and for some people a food crisis. People have all sorts of things to cope with on their minds. Even if free ID will be available and very easy to get, as we are invited to believe by the Ministers, even that one further administrative application will be one too many for many people. That is what the research suggests. It is about the balance of risk. I suggest that the right to vote and to be included in this political community is too fundamental and precious for that risk to be engaged in such a blasé fashion by any Government.
I will say one final thing about this. We are in the heat of party politics when we are talking about prospective elections and say that any party would be suspicious of the other party’s motives. I am on these Benches, but I opposed the Labour Party’s policy on compulsory ID cards for many years because I thought it was wrong. I ask Members of the Committee to accept that I would be against this kind of compulsory identification even if it was proposed by my own party. I hope I have a reasonable enough track record on these fundamental civil liberties.
The balance of risk has not been made out. There is too much to lose for too many people at too difficult and divided a time. With the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, and others who have added their names, including the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, who I think is also unable to be here, I say that Clause 1 should not stand part, given everything else we could be doing in the Bill.