Why are the Conservatives extending voter ID laws?

There’s scant evidence that new restrictions on proxy and postal voting will ‘protect the integrity of our democracy’, says Sean O’Grady – and may even give the Tories a small electoral advantage

Fixing unbroken elections seems the least urgent of the nation’s problems (PA)

Compulsory voter photo ID is to be extended to postal and proxy voting, the government has decided. It follows the controversy over photo ID for in-person voting in the last round of local elections, and accusations that the Conservatives were seeking a partisan advantage. Some returning officers have confirmed that a number of voters were deterred by the new rules, while more may not have bothered to make the journey at all.

New requirements will apply to UK parliamentary elections and other reserved elections, referendums and recall petitions. Local elections in Scotland, and local elections in Wales apart from police and crime commissioner elections, are devolved, and thus not in scope.

Why is the government doing this?