The number of voters in Birmingham has fallen by more than 20,000 since a controversial new system of registering to vote was introduced.
An independent watchdog called for the change, which has been introduced nationwide, after a court ruled in 2005 that there had been widespread voting fraud in Birmingham.
But Labour has criticised the way the changes were introduced, saying they have been “rushed” and many students in particular are in danger of losing the right to vote.
READ MORE: {}
figures show that 728,732 people were registered to in December 2014, but this was down to 707,998 in December 2015, a fall of 20,734.
And 707,888 people were registered to vote in parliamentary elections in December 2014, compared to 686,957 a year later, a drop of 20,931.
Individual voter registration means each person is now required to register to vote individually, providing “identifying information” such as their date of birth and national insurance number.
Applications must be verified before voters added to the register.
Previously, one person in a household simply filled in a form writing in the names of everyone living there who was eligible to vote.
Most Read
But there were calls for change after electoral court ruled there had been widespread fraud in Birmingham, Britain’s largest local authority.
Postmen were intimidated into handing over sacks full of postal votes, and police discovered six men in a warehouse with 274 unsealed postal votes.
Richard Mawrey, the judge in the case, condemned “electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic”.
He said there had been “a Birmingham-wide campaign by the Labour Party to try, by the use of bogus postal votes, to counter the adverse effect of the Iraq war on its electoral fortunes.”
He also said there was no evidence the national Labour Party had known anything about what was happening in Birmingham.
The Electoral Commission, the independent watchdog, called for a change in 2005, saying in its report Voting for Change: “Individual registration is vital to security because it will allow for the first time individual identifiers to be provided by every voter – at minimum a signature and date of birth.
“In our view, reform of voter registration is the key to providing the appropriate level of security for all elections, and particularly in relation to absent voting.”
Don’t miss
But Labour says its analysis of registration figures from across the country has found that 800,000 people are missing from the electoral register.
Labour’s Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Registration, Gloria De Piero MP, has written to Minister John Penrose, to call on the Government to issue guidance to all university and college Vice Chancellors to ensure that students are given the opportunity to register to vote upon enrolment.
She said: “About 800,000 people are missing from the electoral register. The Government ignored independent warnings not to rush through individual electoral registration (IER), and now it appears that students are a casualty of their hasty changes.
“The Government can act by issuing guidance to universities to support them with voter registration – we hope they listen.”