Electoral Reform
Eleanor Laing calls on the Government to urgently introduce measures to tighten up our voter registration process and protect against electoral fraud - before the next general election.
Mrs. Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con): There is, of course, a far more fundamental problem than that of proportional representation: the very integrity of our electoral system. While Conservative Members welcome the measures that the Government have taken—indeed, we have pressed the Government to take such measures as individual voter registration to combat electoral fraud—the system that we are in discussing is in danger of having its integrity questioned. It has already been described as being akin to a banana republic. An electoral commissioner has said that it is childishly simple to commit fraud. Why will not the Government, before the next general election, look at the package of measures that we propose to tighten postal voting and the production of identification at the ballot box to make sure that our system’s integrity is protected against fraud?
Mr. Wills: I have too much respect for the hon. Lady to think that she believes the rubbish that she has just uttered. If she had read the reports from the Electoral Commission, and the most recent one from the commission and the Association of Chief Police Officers, she would know that their conclusion was that the incidence of fraud is declining. She is right on one thing; even a single incident of fraud is one too many. But she well knows that we are not complacent and she knows all of the measures that we have introduced, including postal vote identifiers. She knows that we are introducing individual voter registration, not because the Conservative party is pushing us but because it is the right thing to do.
