Ministers have been urged to scrap plans to introduce mandatory voter ID after a government report said the project "appears to be unachievable".
The policy was forced through by Boris Johnson ’s Tories despite no evidence of widespread in-person voter fraud taking place, and amid warnings it could strip thousands of people of the right to vote.
Now, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority has graded the government's Electoral Integrity project as "red" in their annual report.
That means the body believes there are "major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable."
And the Association of Electoral Administrators last month warned Levelling Up secretary Greg Clark the current timetable for the plan "threatens to lead to voter disenfranchisement and to confuse candidates and campaigners."
In a letter to Mr Clark, Unlock Democracy's Tom Brake urged the government to delay the plan until after the next general election - or to "simply abandon the rollout of photographic voter ID."
He added: "It would be highly risky to attempt the first roll out of photo voter ID for the largest election in the UK, without having tested it on lower turnout elections beforehand."
And there is no evidence of widespread in-person voter fraud - the only kind which would be tackled by the measure - happening in the UK.
Yet the Government claimed potentially disenfranchising thousands of legitimate voters would “strengthen UK democracy”.
At the last general election in 2019, 595 cases of alleged electoral fraud were investigated by police, according to the Electoral Commission.
Four led to a conviction and two people were given a police caution, and the commission said: "The UK has low levels of proven electoral fraud."
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up said: “We will not be complacent when it comes to ensuring our democracy remains secure and our Elections Act will protect the integrity of our elections and stamp out the potential for voter fraud.
“The Secretary of State is committed to driving forward with the direction that has been set for the department, including protecting our democracy.”
