The Tory decision to make every voter have voter ID at the next elections is straight out of Trump playbook.

A made up problem, in this case voter fraud in, what appears to be, an effort in voter manipulation to stop people least likely to vote Tory from voting at all.

But, according to action group Justice 4 Change, there is no evidence to support the government’s claims of widespread electoral fraud.

The Electoral Commission itself says the number of applications for the special ID cards for those without voter ID is lower than expected.

They say it doesn’t know if this reflects a smaller number of people wanting to vote in these elections, if people without ID have instead opted to vote by post or proxy, or if there are other reasons for the low application figures.

But we all know that the majority of those who don’t have photograph ID cards are young people, who are more likely not to vote Tory.

More sinisterly “greeters” are being stationed outside polling stations to turn people away if they don’t have the right ID.

In a trial of the ID scheme in 2019, around 2,000 people were initially refused a ballot paper, of whom roughly 750 did not return with ID and therefore did not take part in the election.

We have seen this trick employed by the Republicans in the US to stop people they don’t want to vote. Some people have even ended up in jail because of it.

Next month is local elections next year the big test will be the general election.