15-Year Rule to Still Apply in the UK General Election in June

15-Year Rule to Still Apply in the UK General Election in June

British voters will still not be allowed to

vote if they have been out of the country

for over 15 years

The controversial law stating British expats aren’t legally allowed to vote in General Elections and national referendums if they have been overseas for over 15 years will still be in place and applicable during the June 8 snap election.

There has been several times when the law was due to be scrapped, most recently for the 2015 general election, and then again during the EU referendum of last year that saw Britain vote to leave the EU.

Both of these occasions saw the issue of giving British citizens back their full democratic rights was slowly pushed off of the table. Last Friday it was confirmed by the British Cabinet Office confirmed that there isn’t going to be enough time to change the law before the election in June.

The result is that over one million British people living overseas are going to be denied the chance to cast their vote in the upcoming election; causing Dave Spokes – a founding member of the Expat Citizens Rights in the EU support group – to express how disappointed the inaction of the Conservative government left him.

He had the following to say on the matter; “The people most affected by the EU referendum were not allowed to vote in it, simply because they exercised their right to live in another EU country.”

Thousands of people have signed an online petition calling for expats to be given the right to vote following the government’s confirmation that the law would not be changed.

The campaign was set up by Chris Madsen – a resident of France – in the hopes of pressuring the Conservative government into pushing back the date of the general election to make time to change the law, or push the administration to allow long-term expats to vote through.

Masden set up the petition on change.org, in which he wrote that it was wrong for the UK to disenfranchise their own citizens like this at such a time, especially given that they announced plans to abolish the 15-year rule.

Even though it’s unknown how long-term expats would vote in the general election, it appears to that many of them would likely be against the Brexit. They would most likely vote for the parties that aim to reverse the Brexit if they would win the election.

Whitehall Blocks Expat Voting Rights Change to Maintain 15-Year Rule

Whitehall Blocks Expat Voting Rights Change to Maintain 15-Year Rule.

Its a sad state of affairs that Britain continues to keep outdated laws 

Long-term British expats living in Spain and all over Europe who are hoping to be able to vote in British general elections will no doubt be disappointed by the decision Whitehall took to reject the proposed changes to the 15-Year Law. David Cameron promised to get rid of the controversial 15-Year Rule that said expats who had lived outside of the country for over 15 years could no longer vote in general elections. It seems like his promise has been overturned by the new government that replaced the former Prime Minister.

Whitehall ministers have said they feel that changing the law would be too complex and will instead be maintaining the status quo now that David Cameron, who pledged to change the rule as part of his 2015 election manifesto, is no longer in charge. The change was also intended to enable those expats to vote in the EU Referendum. With that in the rear-view mirror politicians see the rule as less of an issue now.

Cameron made the promise when he called out for long-term expats to vote for him and his Conservative Party during the last general election. The promise went on the backburner after Cameron secured his second term. Instead Cameron chose to make his promise of an EU Referendum a priority.

The irony of this choice is that if Cameron HAD changed the law before the Referendum then he could still very well be in power and the UK would likely still be part of the EU as those expats would most likely have voted, and voted in their droves, to stay in the EU.

The Daily Mail is reporting that the issue is once again being put on the shelf now that Cameron has gone and the UK is attempting to avoid the Brexit and it seems the wave of brits wanting to move to places like spain is even on the up!  Geoffrey Clinton-Brown, one of the campaigners who hoped to change the law, believes that civil servants dislike the idea of difficult changes. Whitehall say that one of the difficulties in changing the rules is that electoral registers are only kept for 15 years. As such it would become difficult to find out which constituency these long-term expats used to live in. Cliff-Brown believes that this just an excuse to stall the issue.

The U-turn is actual a contradiction of the Tory party line they’ve been touting for over two years. The former Party chairman Grant Shapps said that British citizens are Brits for life. They will always have the right to be protected by the military and travel on a British passport and that the Tory party believes it should also give them the lifelong right to vote.

The Daily Mail is also reporting that a former Foreign Office Minister has now admitted that making the change would be more complex than it was first thought it would be. This difficulty, combined with the lack of political will by the government, has left many expats unable to vote with no change in sight.

The Commons Leader David Lidington says that the matter is more complex than it appears. The change would mean having to create a new system of voter registration which is difficult because of the lack of voter registers from over 15 years ago. The government would need to find a way to allocate people to constituencies and then prove that they lived where they say they did.

Clifton-Brown is refusing to accept any of their excuses. He says that it shouldn’t be too difficult for people to provide some evidence that they used to I've where they say they did. There are many ways to do this including doctor’s notes, passport numbers, and National Insurance notes. He believes any of these can, and should, be used as proof of address.

One thing is for sure, Brits will still keep moving out of the UK to southern Europe regardless whether they can vote or not as the healthier lifestyle and the cost of living in places like spain coupled with the amazing 320 days of sunshine will always temp people away from the wet and dismal uk.