TORY plans to force voters to prove their identities at polling stations have been criticised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which says it risks disenfranchising “older people, transgender people, people with disabilities and/or those from ethnic minority communities”.

The plans, first mooted by the UK Government at the end of 2016, will be piloted next week, when parts of England go to the polls for a round of local elections.

Voters in several local authorities will need to take a passport or a driving licence before they are given a ballot paper.

A leaked letter from the EHRC to Cabinet Office minister David Lidington says asking voters for ID is an inelegant solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist. And worse, it may mean voters who don’t have a passport or driving licence could be disenfranchised as a result.

The Windrush scandal has shone a spotlight on the number of people who have lived in this country for decades but who don’t have ID because the authorities failed to register them or destroyed their landing cards.

While in Scotland, the Scottish Government says their evidence suggests the less a person earns, the less likely they are to have a passport or driving licence.

In 2015, 45 per cent of adults living in low-income households, net annual household income of up to £10,000, held a full driving licence, compared to 89 per cent of those in high-income households. In the EHRC’s letter, leaked to the Observer, the human rights body’s legal officer Claire Collier tells Lidington: “The Commission is concerned that the requirement to produce identification at the given local elections (Bromley, Gosport, Swindon, Watford and Woking) will have a disproportionate impact on voters with protected characteristics, particularly older people, transgender people, people with disabilities and/or those from ethnic minority communities.

“In essence, there is a concern that some voters will be disenfranchised as a result of restrictive identification requirements.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Forcing voters at election time to prove their identity at polling stations by producing official documents would have a disproportionate impact on people from black and ethnic minority communities.

“It is the same hostile environment all over again, shutting our fellow citizens out of public life, treating communities who made Britain their home as second-class citizens. It’s disgraceful and it must be brought to an end.”

An SNP spokesman agreed: “The right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy – and no politician should get in the way of the public exercising that right. The evidence is clear that ownership of photo ID is directly related to household income, and these changes would naturally affect low-income voters most.

“After the change to individual voter registration saw hundreds of thousands drop off the register, these plans look like the latest Tory ploy that would disenfranchise the poorest.”

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We already ask that people prove who they are in order to collect a parcel from the post office, rent a car, or travel abroad.

“We believe it is right to take the same approach to protect voting rights. Local authorities are implementing equality impact assessments and are working with partners to ensure that voter ID does not risk preventing any eligible voter from voting. It is in nobody’s interest that any elector is disenfranchised.”

There is very little evidence of voter fraud in British elections. Out of 45 million votes cast in last year’s snap general election, the Electoral Commission investigated 28 allegations of someone having lied about their identity at a polling station in 2017.

Just one person was convicted. Corbyn supporter Mohammad Zain Qureshi was fined £150 after boasting on Twitter about voting for Labour twice.