Boris Johnson pays tribute to polling station staff who refused to let him vote without photo ID
Boris Johnson has paid tribute to the villagers who Sky News revealed turned him away from a polling station when he tried to vote without a valid photo ID – under rules he introduced.
The former prime minister said he attempted to cast his ballot using a magazine sleeve with his name and address on as proof but was prevented from doing so.
The requirement to provide photo ID was introduced by Mr Johnson during his time in Downing Street as part of the Elections Act 2022.
The move was controversial over fears it would bar people from voting, particularly among disadvantaged groups.
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Mr Johnson had been seeking to vote in South Oxfordshire, where a police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley was being elected.
Writing in his Daily Mail column, he said: “I want to pay a particular tribute to the three villagers who on Thursday rightly turned me away when I appeared in the polling station with nothing to prove my identity except the sleeve of my copy of Prospect magazine, on which my name and address had been printed.
“I showed it to them and they looked very dubious… within minutes I was back with my driving licence and voted Tory.”
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Thursday’s election is the first time many voters in England and Wales have had to present ID to vote under provisions first rolled out at last year’s local elections.
As well as driving licences, other acceptable forms of ID include passports, proof of age cards, blue badges, and some concessionary travel cards.
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The government has also said it intends to make veterans’ ID cards a valid form of voter identification after former service personnel were turned away.
Veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer apologised to those who had been unable to use the document to vote, vowing to “do all I can” to have it added to the list of valid identification.
Labour said the government has had years to ensure the card was included, having begun rolling out the scheme in 2019.
Spain’s Sumar parliamentary group has introduced amendments to reform three major tax laws affecting cryptocurrencies, including the General Tax Law, Income Tax Law and Inheritance and Gift Tax Law, according to local media.
The proposal would change how crypto profits are taxed, shifting gains from non-financial-instrument assets into the general income tax bracket, which would raise the top rate to 47% instead of the current 30% savings rate, while setting a flat 30% tax for corporate holders, according to a Tuesday report from CriptoNoticias.
Sumar is a left-wing political alliance that holds 26 of the 350 seats in Spain’s Congress of Deputies as of early 2024. It is also a junior partner in the governing coalition with the Socialist Party.
The plan by the left-wing political platform would also require the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) to create a visual “risk traffic light” system for cryptocurrencies, to be displayed on investor platforms.
Another controversial element is the proposal to classify all cryptocurrencies as attachable assets eligible for seizure. Lawyer Cris Carrascosa said on X that this is unenforceable, especially for tokens like Tether’s USDt (USDT), which cannot be held by regulated custodians under MiCA rules.
Related: How to file crypto taxes in 2025 (US, UK, Germany guide)
Critics call it an attack on Bitcoin
In a post on X, economist and tax adviser José Antonio Bravo Mateu denounced the amendments as “useless attacks against Bitcoin,” arguing that the measures misunderstand how decentralized assets work. He noted that Bitcoin held in self-custody cannot be seized or monitored in the same way as traditional financial assets.
“The only thing these measures achieve is to make its holders residing in Spain think about fleeing when BTC rises so high that they no longer care what politicians say,” he warned.
Meanwhile, tax inspectors Juan Faus and José María Gentil have recently suggested creating a special, more favorable tax regime specifically for Bitcoin (BTC). Their proposal allows taxpayers to separate wallets and apply either FIFO (first-in, first-out) or weighted-average methods, with value adjustments when moving assets between wallets to prevent tax gaming.
Spain’s tax agency has been warning crypto holders about taxes for years, sending 328,000 warning notices for taxes on crypto for the 2022 fiscal year in 2023, followed by 620,000 similar notices a year later.
Related: Bitcoin for taxes? Proposed bill would let Americans pay the IRS in BTC
Japan plans 20% flat tax
While Spain considers increasing taxes on crypto gains, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) is pushing for a tax reform that would dramatically reduce the burden on crypto investors.
Instead of taxing crypto earnings as “miscellaneous income” at rates that can reach 55%, Japan aims to apply a flat 20% capital gains tax, bringing digital assets in line with equities and making the country more competitive for traders and businesses.
Magazine: 2026 is the year of pragmatic privacy in crypto — Canton, Zcash and more
Market infrastructure provider Deutsche Börse plans to integrate the EURAU euro-pegged stablecoin issued by AllUnity, expanding the exchange group’s digital-asset strategy following earlier ties with Circle’s Euro Coin (EURC) and Societe Generale-Forge’s EUR CoinVertible (EURCV).
According to a Wednesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Deutsche Börse plans to integrate EURAU into its financial market infrastructure, starting with institutional custody through its central securities depository arm, Clearstream. The announcement also promised a future “integration of the euro stablecoin across the entire service portfolio.”
This would integrate the stablecoin into a sizable and growing market. According to World Federation of Exchanges data, Deutsche Börse’s domestic equity market capitalization is about $2.23 trillion with 474 listed companies.
The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding, but have not yet shared a specific date for when the new features will go live. AllUnity CEO Alexander Höptner said that the partnership is “making onchain cross-border payments and digital assets accessible to institutional market participants.”
Deutsche Börse Group executive board member Stephanie Eckermann said the “goal is to build a seamless bridge between the established financial world and the future of digital assets.” She added that this partnership is an important part of the effort and that embedding institutional-grade stablecoins allows clients “to confidently explore new possibilities in digital finance.”
Deutsche Börse and AllUnity had not responded to Cointelegraph’s inquiry by time of publication.
Related: Stablecoin panic could upend ECB policy, Dutch central bank governor warns
Deutsche Börse expands euro stablecoin strategy
Deutsche Börse’s EURAU integration follows its partnership with major stablecoin issuer Circle to adopt its EURC token in late September. Earlier this month, the company also announced that it had partnered with Societe Generale-Forge to integrate its EURCV stablecoin.
With this latest deal, Deutsche Börse appears to be playing the stablecoin game on all fronts, adding EURAU, issued by a German BaFin-licensed e-money institution. This complements EURCV, a bank-tied stablecoin, as Societe Generale-Forge is the blockchain arm of major French multinational bank Societe Generale; EURC comes from a US tech-sector issuer.
Related: Aave to offer zero-fee stablecoin ramps in Europe after MiCA approval
EU stablecoin adoption is taking shape with MiCA
While not leading to as many headlines as the United States, the European Union is also making progress in stablecoin adoption following the full introduction of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework at the end of 2024. The announcement noted that the partnership “aligns with MiCA” and “represents a tangible step toward digitizing European markets and enhancing settlement and liquidity processes.”
Höptner said, “Europe is taking a global lead in regulated digital finance.”
Still, while picking up speed, stablecoin adoption remains low in Europe. Earlier this month, financial stability experts at the European Central Bank (ECB) said stablecoin-related risks in the euro area were limited due to low adoption and preventative regulation.
Some analyses point to euro stablecoins as a response to concerns that US dollar-backed stablecoins could threaten the European Union’s monetary independence. “Europe should not be dependent on US dollar-denominated stablecoins, which are currently dominating markets,” Pierre Gramegna, the managing director of the European Stability Mechanism, said earlier this month.
The industry is also seeing increasing involvement by local traditional financial players. In mid-October, Franco-German banking group ODDO BHF launched a stablecoin pegged to the euro under the MiCA framework.
In late September, a group of major European banks joined forces to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin under MiCA. The list of nine banks includes Dutch lender ING and Italy’s UniCredit.
Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight
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