Minister apologises to ex-soldier turned away from polling station over ID

The Veterans Minister has apologised to a former soldier who was turned away at a polling station using his new ID card.

Army veteran Adam Diver, 48, had been planning to vote in Fleetwood, Lancashire, but said he was turned away after presenting his veteran card. Voters are required to show ID at a polling station after the Tories changed the law in 2022. However the new veteran ID card, which was introduced earlier this year, is not among those accepted.

His comments, which were posted on Twitter, were picked up by Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer, who tweeted: “I am sorry about this. The legislation on acceptable forms of ID came out before the veterans ID cards started coming out in January this year. I will do all I can to change it before the next one.”

It comes amid ongoing criticism over the Government’s decision to force people to show ID to vote. Electoral Commission data found that 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.

Mr Diver, who served in the Army for 27 years, said: “I felt clearly deflated, I felt gutted to be fair and upset – I felt angry at the point. I felt like my time served was invalidated and I just thought to myself, ‘what was the point in that?’

“I’ve served in pretty much every war going, I’ve spent 27 years away from my family. I thought you could use it as an ID card. It’s like a driving licence, you can’t get any more official and it didn’t strike me one bit that it wouldn’t be validated.”

Downing Street said ministers are consulting on whether to include veteran cards in the list of approved forms of ID for elections. “This ID card was introduced very, very recently,” the PM’s official spokesman said.

“I think it’s something that we will want to look into. There’s already a very wide range of acceptable documents including a free voter authority certificate which is accepted at all polling stations so anyone who is eligible to vote can continue to do so. But we will certainly look into the question of the veteran ID card which was introduced earlier this year.”

A Government spokesperson said: “Our intention is for the new veteran card, which was rolled out in January 2024, to be added to the official list of recognised identification – and we are already consulting on this. Defence identity cards for serving Armed Forces members are already accepted.”