Labour fears voter registration changes could cost seats

Has the Labour party got more to fear than other parties from the planned reforms?

As its 2011 conference came to an end, the party’s deputy leader Harriet Harman used her closing speech to condemn what she called a “shameful assault on people’s democratic rights”. She was referring to government plans to change the electoral registration process.

Described by Peter Wardle, the chief executive of the Electoral Commission as “the biggest change to voting since the introduction of universal suffrage”, the plans will mean that instead of the current system of household registration, each elector will have to register individually.

The new system, known as IER, was backed on Thursday by the Electoral Commission which said: “we believe that IER can be introduced in a way to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the electoral register is improved”.

But the Commission has previously voiced concerns about an additional proposal that the reform should also allow electors – who have often shown a scant interest in exercising their right to vote – to tick a box to avoid being chased up for a whole year about their failure to register to vote. Currently it is compulsory to co-operate with electoral registration officers when they try to compile an accurate register.

And it is this that is causing the Labour party particular concern. Pollsters have warned that the people who are least engaged in politics – the poor, the young and ethnic minorities voters – are more likely to back Labour if and when they do vote, and it is these electors who are thought to be most likely to opt-out of the new registration system.