"The absolute state of this lot"
The former Prime Minister found himself in a sticky situation on Thursday after he was turned away from his polling station for forgetting to bring an acceptable piece of photo ID, now a necessity under laws his government introduced.
He was the second Tory MP affected by the rules which require voters to bring a form of acceptable ID in order to cast a vote. The rules were introduced under the Elections Act 2022 during Boris Johnson’s time as Prime Minister.
Johnson had to return with a valid form of photo ID to cast his ballot at the polling station in South Oxfordshire. He had initially been turned away after bringing an envelope with his name and address on, a source said in the Mirror. His blunder was met with incredulity and despair online.
Former leader of the Green Party, Caroline Lucas, said: “Surprise! Discredited, ousted former PM Boris Johnson didn’t stop to consider that the voter suppression rules he introduced might actually apply to him.”
Director of the Good Law Project Jo Maugham said: “Did he “forget” his ID? Or did he just assume that the rules would not apply to him?”
Editor at Byline Times, Adam Bienkov commented: “Incredible. When I told Boris Johnson three years ago that his Voter ID law would stop people from being able to vote he told me I was talking “total nonsense”
“Now Sky News reports he was turned away from voting for “failing to bring acceptable voter ID”
LBC presenter James O’Brien offered a brutal takedown of Johnson as he said there were three possible reasons for what happened: “Epic incompetence, epic entitlement…or epic narcissism”
“There’s so many times you think you’ve happened upon the most distillation of Boris Johnson’s moral corruption or epic corruption, and then up he pops,” O’Brien said.
One X user mused: “If I’d been the one who got to turn Boris Johnson away from the polling station for having no ID, I would be dining out on that shit for the rest of my life.
“On my death bed I would gather my family around for one final retelling, before slipping smugly into the afterlife.”
Lawyer and political commentator Peter Stefanovic said: “The absolute state of this lot”.
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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