Boris Johnson’s “assault on democracy” crackdown forcing voters to show ID has been dealt a crucial defeat in the House of Lords.
Peers voted 199-170 tonight to water down a crucial clause in the Elections Bill that will force voters to show photo ID in polling stations.
They backed an amendment from Tory ex-minister Lord Willetts to expand the list of accepted identification to include non-photo documents - such as birth certificates, bank statements, council tax demands and library cards.
A move to kill off the voter ID proposals entirely did not succeed.
But Tory ministers suggested they would oppose the move when it goes back to the Commons for final approval.
Cabinet Office minister Lord True said plans to include further forms of ID to access polling stations would "weaken the security of our elections”.
He said: "The majority of the suggestions do not share a photograph of the elector, so cannot provide the appropriate level of proof that the bearer is who they say they are."
Voters will be forced from next year to show ID at polling stations under the Tory Elections Bill if it passes the Lords.
Pilots of the crackdown, which will cost £120m over a decade, showed 740 voters were denied a vote in just 10 areas.
Yet there were just 171 claims of in-person voter fraud from 2014 to 2019 - of which three led to a conviction.
Lord Willetts said there is "no evidence" that personation, voting in an election by pretending to be someone else, is a significant problem in the British electoral system.
He told the debate: "The costs imposed by this measure seem to me to go way beyond the scale of the problem, costs estimated at £180 million over 10 years.
"If a broader range of documents are accepted that removes the need for a new separate group of voter ID cards and that hence lowers the costs involved."
Lord Willetts questioned what might happen at the next election if "hundreds of voters per constituency" were turned away from polling stations and do not return.
He said: "Imagine if the outcome of the next election is a modest majority, I hope for the party which I am a member, where throughout the day the media story has been voters being turned away from polling stations?
"That seems to me a very significant political and constitutional risk that does need to be taken into account if this measure is introduced."
Independent crossbench peer Lord Woolley, the founder and director of Operation Black Vote, said there was "one conviction" for voter fraud "out of 47 million voters”.
He added: "It means you've got more chance of being struck down by lightning, I think it's 300,000-to-one.
"You've got more chance of winning the National Lottery, which is 46 million-to-one.
"The case for fraud hasn't been made."
Green Party peer Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb said of voter ID: "It's a cynical ploy, a clear attempt by the Government to make it harder for people to vote in elections."
