Campaigners for dedicated MPs for Britons overseas are asking them to send postcards to their current UK MPs from their homes around the world, including France.
France is one of 17 countries which already have overseas constituencies and MPs, and is an example of “best practice”, a meeting of the UK’s all-party parliamentary group on rights of EU citizens in the UK and Britons abroad, heard.
The chair of campaign group New Europeans UK, Ruvi Ziegler, said the removal, last year, of the UK’s former ban on citizens voting after 15 years overseas “makes the case even stronger for overseas constituencies”.
There are estimated to be around six million Britons living abroad.
“We expect MPs to represent the interests of their constituents, but the vast majority of their constituents live physically in those constituencies and a very small minority in different locations abroad. This is unreasonable on the MP – who has no expertise on these questions – and also an incredibly inefficient way of representing Britons abroad,” said Mr Ziegler.
“The idea is for the MP to have a real link with those people, and 17 countries agree it is best done by a dedicated MP.”
He added that the concerns of overseas Britons are more likely to be similar to those of other Britons in their part of the world than people in the UK constituency where they formerly lived.
Examples given at the meeting included residency rights in the EU, high fees and income tests for family visas for mixed-nationality couples moving to the UK, and high ‘international’ student fees (note: from 2028, the latter will also apply to young people from British families in France).
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Mr Ziegler said voter registration of Britons abroad could also be simplified with a “hub” in each region of the world.
Tom Brake, director of campaign group Unlock Democracy and a former Liberal Democrat MP, said the challenge is to convince British MPs of the benefits of ‘overseas constituencies’.
“We should get people around the world to send their MPs postcards,” he said. “MPs get lots of emails, but they would remember a postcard. We need to demonstrate that UK citizens around the world want this.”
Tom Brake
He said they are also seeking to persuade MPs to ask parliamentary questions on this topic so as to force ministers to take note of the issue, and so that their officials have to work on an answer on it.
Rising dangers in the modern world are an added reason to have dedicated MPs, who might live in, or regularly visit, their constituencies, he said. “In cases, for instance, where repatriation may be necessary it would be better to have someone close to the ground.”
Mr Brake added that a new Elections Bill – expected in 2026 – should be “a vehicle in which we can press for this change.”
The chair of Liberal Democrats in Europe, David Sapiro, said overseas constituencies are official Lib Dem policy. It would also help for Britons abroad to urge family and friends in the UK to tell their own MPs of the benefits, he said.
Michael Aidan from Labour International, representing party members overseas, said they had voted to support the idea – however they do not speak for Labour as a whole. They are seeking to have a motion accepted for discussion at Labour’s annual conference.
The all-party group also heard how Italians abroad elect committees of citizens to advise consulates as well as a national representative body to advise the government: which also exists for France. However, Mr Brake said major new funding cuts announced for the foreign office may not bode well for creating such schemes for Britons abroad.
