Alongside mandating voter ID, the government plans to keep the Electoral Commission – which oversees elections – in check
When judging a law that rewrites the rules of democracy, the test is not whether it does what the current government promises, but what it might be in the hands of the worst imaginable government.
To facilitate that exercise for Conservative MPs, here is a thought experiment: what might they say about the elections bill, debated in the Commons on Tuesday, if it were offered to them by a Labour prime minister?