End in sight for 15-year rule?
The Conservative win means expats should gain new voting rights but it also means an EU referendum by the end of 2017
A CONSERVATIVE victory at the UK general elections means the UK will now be expected to hold to a pledge to end the 15-year limit on the expat vote.
That was one of the party’s main promises to Britons overseas, and it was the only party to offer it unequivocally. However, the Conservatives will also now be expected to follow through with another policy likely to divide expats much more – an in/out referendum on the EU, by the end of 2017.
The party has not clarified if it would give the vote back to long-term expats in time to take part in it.
The party’s manifesto says about the expat vote: “We will complete the electoral register, by working to include more of the five million Britons who live abroad. We will introduce votes for life, scrapping the rule that bars British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years from voting.”
As for the referendum, the party says it is required to give the British “real change and real choice on Europe”. It means that the UK will now press for further concessions, probably on the right of free movement to live and work in the UK.
The latest EU treaty – the Treaty of Lisbon – allows for the possibility of a state exiting from the union and this does not require agreement of the other members, unlike joining the union. If Britain withdrew it would be the first time a state has done so.
The Conservatives also state they will withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (policed by the European Court of Human Rights), to which 47 countries are signed up, and replace it with a “British Bill of Rights” with more “common sense”.
The party manifesto also includes retaining the temperature test for the Winter Fuel Payment “so that expats in hot countries no longer receive it”.
Important note: If you want to vote in any future referendum on the EU you must be registered as a voter in the UK to do so. Click here to do so: Register to vote. At present this is only applicable to those who have not been out of the country for more than 15 years.
