poll tax

Congress’s aim was to prevent minorities from being disenfranchised by the likes of poll taxes.

The scale of the arrests - at a level not seen since the poll tax riots in the 1990s - and the diversion of police from other areas was criticised by MPs, including many from Labour.

From poll taxes abolished by the 24th Amendment in 1964 to barriers dismantled by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, every step forward has been a fight against deliberate disenfranchisement.

The poll taxes and literacy tests of that era operated under the idea that Black people were fundamentally unqualified to participate in democracy.

The role meant he was involved in introducing the poll tax in Scotland, where it was piloted a year earlier than in England and Wales.