22 Mar Intervention in Supreme Court case on Voter ID

DPG clients Operation Black Vote, the Runnymede Trust and Voice4Change UK have been given permission to intervene in the Supreme Court case of Coughlan v Minister for the Cabinet Office, challenging the imposition of voter ID requirements in UK local elections (in May 2019).  The claimant in the case argues that clear primary legislation was required to introduce voter ID schemes, even on a trial basis.  Our clients will argue that voter ID requirements are an obstacle to the right to vote that historically has had a disproportionate impact on minority ethnic groups.

The government recently announced its intention to legislate to introduce voter ID requirements.  This case promises to underline the constitutional significance of imposing any barrier on the right to vote and the disproportionate impacts on protected equality groups.

See article in the Guardian here: https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/18/supreme-court-hear-challenge-uk-voter-id-trial-2019-election and previous comment piece from our client Runnymede Trust here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/15/voter-fraud-government-id-plan.

A copy of the Court of Appeal’s earlier judgment can be found here: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2020/723.html.

Matthew Ryder QC and Ayesha Christie of Matrix Chambers, together with Gayatri Sarathy of Blackstone Chambers and Michael Etienne of Garden Court Chambers are instructed pro-bono in this matter.

Image credit: Michael Fleshman | CC BY-SA 2.0

Share this story