15-year rule to still apply in June’s UK General Election

The controversial law that rules out British expats from voting in General Elections or national referendums if they have lived overseas for longer than 15 years will still apply in the snap election called for June 8…

The ruling has been due to be scrapped numerous times, most recently in the run-up to the 2015 general election, and again at some point after last year’s EU referendum that resulted in Brexit.

Both times, however, the issue of granting full democratic rights to British citizens was shuffled quietly off the discussion table, and on Friday last week the British Cabinet Office said that it “does not have enough time” to change the law before the upcoming election.

This means that up to one million Brits living overseas could be denied the chance to vote in the election, prompting Dave Spokes, one of the founders of the support group Expat Citizen Rights in EU to express his disappointment in the Conservative government’s inaction.

“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.”

Since the government confirmed that it would not consider changing the rule, an online petition to give all expats the vote has already garnered thousands of signatures.

Set up by France resident Chris Madsen, the campaign hopes to put pressure on the Conservatives to either delay the General Election date to enable the necessary law changes to be made, or push through administration that clears the way for long-term expats to make their voices heard.

“We believe that it was wrong of the UK to have disenfranchised its own citizens in this way at such a time, especially since it had previously been announced that the 15-year rule was due to be abolished,” wrote Madsen on the petition site change.org.

While there is no way of knowing how longer-term expats will vote, the general consensus appears to be that many of them are likely to be anti-Brexit, and as such could be more likely to vote for parties that would seek to reverse the Brexit process should they come to power.