The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has expressed worry that the recent changes in the voting system for Mayor of London could affect his chances of being re-elected to the position in the forthcoming May 2 election.
Although, Mayor Khan, who is of the Labour, holds a solid lead in opinion polls over his Conservative challenger, Susan Hall, amid persistently weak Tory polling nationwide; he still nurse feelings that the new system, which requires voters to bring ID to the polling station, may not be favourable to him in the election.
According to him, the need for voters to bring ID to the polling station, and a switch to a first-past-the-post system, increase the danger he could suffer a shock defeat.
Polling shows younger voters – who tend to back Labour – are much more likely to be unaware of the new rules than Conservative-leaning older Londoners.
The Tories have rejected the claim that the changes are designed to benefit them and accused Mr Khan of Donald Trump-style election denial.
A requirement to bring a form of photo ID when voting in person was introduced last year but the London election on 2 May will be its largest-scale test so far.
This year’s mayoral elections in the capital and other large cities will be the first where voters can pick only a single candidate, rather than naming a first and second choice as before. In the last two London elections, Mr Khan took the majority of second preferences as the Green and Liberal Democrat candidates were eliminated, bolstering his lead over the Tories.
A survey by Deltapoll suggests that nearly one in five Londoners do not know about the need to bring ID, meaning they could end up unable to vote. Labour voters were twice as likely as Conservatives to be unaware of the new rules.
Just 44 per cent of respondents under the age of 25 said they had heard of the change, with 43 per cent not knowing about it. By contrast, 98 per cent of over-65s were aware. Older voters were also more likely to have heard about the tweak to the voting system.
Mr Khan said: “This mayoral election is going to be a close two-horse race between me and my hard-right Tory opponent. And the Tories have brought in changes to the voting system to directly increase their chances of winning.
“It’s outrageous that while most ID used by older people is valid, a lot of ID used by younger people isn’t.
“My message to young Londoners today is make sure you don’t accidently lose your right to vote on 2 May – make sure you have the required valid ID. We can’t let cynical voting changes the Tories brought in mean we wake up with someone in City Hall who’s repeatedly promoted racist content online and backed Donald Trump.”
A Susan Hall campaign source said in response: “Sadiq Khan is borrowing from the Trump playbook, resorting to desperate smears and false claims that the election is rigged. If Londoners reject him, his Ulez expansion and his pay-per-mile plans on 2 May, he should do the decent thing and respect the result.”
Conservatives have sought to take advantage of the new rules by encouraging voters who are unhappy with Mr Khan’s performance as Mayor to cast their vote for another candidate even if that is not Ms Hall.
In a letter sent to Londoners by Tory MP Steve Tuckwell, who won a by-election last year by campaigning against the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), the party urged voters to ensure that Mr Khan “wins by a smaller margin than he’s expecting” without mentioning the Conservative candidate by name.
