One in seven Gipton and Harehills voters refused ballot paper due to ID

Eighty-five out of 601 voters in Gipton and Harehills were refused a ballot paper

Around one in seven voters in an area of Leeds were turned away for not having valid ID at May's local elections, according to council data.

Eighty-five out of 601 voters in Gipton and Harehills were refused a ballot paper, Leeds City Council data showed.

Of those, only 40 returned later in the day with valid ID which allowed them to cast a vote.

This year's elections were the first in the UK where voters needed to produce proof of their identity.

'Sledge hammer to crack a nut'

The council's deputy leader Debra Coupar said she was concerned about the impact of the new law, which was introduced by the government to crack down on potential voter fraud.

"To me, the government is taking a sledge hammer to crack a nut," she told BBC Radio Leeds.

Speaking at a scrutiny committee last week, Ms Coupar said: "I do think that when you look at some of the ward statistics, in terms of the numbers of individuals, some of our elections have turned on less than those numbers.

"(The law change) could make a huge difference to the outcome of local elections."

High numbers of rejections were also recorded in the two wards covering Leeds city centre - Hunslet and Riverside and Little London and Woodhouse, where 100 people were initially turned away across the two wards.

However, the scrutiny committee was told the proportion of voters rejected in Leeds overall was far smaller compared to other council areas.

Kippax and Methley and Temple Newsam saw the fewest rejections - with just six people refused a ballot paper across the two wards, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).