Boris Johnson admits attempting to make use of unusual merchandise as voter ID at polling station
Boris Johnson has admitted that he was turned away at a polling station on Thursday after attempting to vote without a valid ID.
The Prime Minister said he attempted to use the address label from a magazine that he got in the post as a form of identification.
In his column in the Daily Mail, he wrote: “I want to pay a particular tribute to the three villagers who on Thursday rightly turned me away when I appeared in the polling station with nothing to prove my identity except the sleeve of my copy of Prospect magazine, on which my name and address had been printed. I showed it to them and they looked very dubious… within minutes I was back with my driving licence and voted Tory.”
The Mirror revealed on Thursday evening that Mr Johnson had only had some post with his name and address on it.
The requirement to provide photo ID was introduced by Mr Johnson during his time in Downing Street as part of the Elections Act 2022. Thursday’s election was the first time many voters in England and Wales had to present ID to vote under provisions first rolled out at last year’s local elections.
Acceptable forms of ID include a passport, driving licence, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (Pass) cards, Blue Badges, and some concessionary travel cards.
It’s not the first time Mr Johnson has broken his own rules. The ex-PM was fined by police in 2022 for attending a surprise lockdown birthday party in Downing Street in June 2020. Police probing the Partygate scandal also handed fines to his wife Carrie and Rishi Sunak over the impromptu gathering in the Cabinet room while the country was still in lockdown.
Mr Johnson shelled out £3.8million last year for a Grade II listed Oxfordshire manor house for his wife Carrie and their young family. The nine-bed country pile also boasts a swimming pool and a three-sided moat.
Mr Johnson has mostly kept out of frontline politics since he was ousted by his own MPs in 2022, paving the way for Liz Truss’s disastrous 49-day stint in No10. But he was wheeled out this week to support Tory mayors Ben Houchen in Tees Valley and Andy Street in the West Midlands. In a swipe at Rishi Sunak, Mr Johnson told voters in the West Midlands to “forget about the Government” and put their trust in Mr Street.
It comes amid ongoing criticism over the Government’s decision to force people to show ID to cast their votes. Electoral Commission data found that 0.25% of people – approximately 14,000 – who went to a polling station in last year’s local elections were unable to vote due to ID requirements.
