The local elections earlier this month should have been a shining example of our democracy in action. However, for the first time, the Conservative Government in Westminster restricted people’s ability to exercise their democratic right - through the introduction of new Voter ID regulations.

Under these rules, people had to produce one of a limited number of photographic IDs which the Government deemed “valid” to cast their vote. There have been suggestions in the press that the Conservatives were seeking to maximise votes for their party by excluding ID documents such as the young person’s railcard.

However, my experience talking to voters in East Devon ahead of the local elections was that some of those groups who were most commonly barred from voting were older constituents.

The intent of these rules were clear: to prop up this floundering Government. This isn’t just my opinion; last week Jacob Rees-Mogg told a Conservative conference that the Conservatives introduced voter ID to boost their election chances, but it came 'back to bite them'.

He said "Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections ... we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well.”

Liberal Democrats strongly opposed these measures. Yet, the Conservatives repeatedly voted to bring in these restrictions and as a result, thousands of people were turned away on polling day.

Being able to choose who represents you is a cornerstone of our democracy.  It is a British right dating back decades or centuries. It used to be that Conservatives supported the preservation of voting rights, but now it seems they only want to conserve their grip on power.

However, one thing they didn’t count on was you - the British people. You stood up for what is right and showed they cannot keep taking us for granted. I will continue to fight to abolish these rules and protect the sanctity of the ballot box for our Parliamentary democracy.