poll tax

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.

Ms. Hubbard, who is African American, cast her first ballot before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned practices aimed at restricting Black Americans from voting, like poll taxes and literacy tests.

A Labour leader heaping any sort of praise on a prime minister who introduced the poll tax and took on the miners is a hard sell for party figures north of the border.

White leaders of both parties used numerous tactics over several decades to suppress the Black vote, from poll taxes to literacy tests.

“It’s a poll tax. It’s a tax on exercising a constitutional right,” said Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association, who opposes the tax.