Give your view on expat voting plans
A consultation on UK government plans to end the 15-year limit on voting for Britons abroad is still open.
The cabinet office said it is likely to accept views/recommendations for another “couple of months”.
However, it still does not know when a bill on the topic will be presented to parliament, other than that the government has pledged to do it before the next general election in 2020.
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The aim is to give votes for life to all adult Britons who can show they have lived in the UK. Currently registration is only for people who had previously been a registered UK voter – or their parents had been if they were too young when they moved. Anyone out of the country for more than 15 years currently loses the right to vote.
A requirement for annual registration renewal remains in the plans but it is proposed that people could be alerted by email and renew by email or online.
Removing the 15-year limit was a Conservative manifesto promise and campaigners had hoped to see it done as a priority – before the referendum – after it was included in the full documents of the government’s first Queen’s Speech in 2015.
Britons abroad had no vote until 1985 when, under the Conservatives, a five-year limit was imposed. This was extended to 20 years in 1989 but dropped to 15 under Labour in 2000.
Conservatives Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP and Lord Lexden launched bids to remove the limit in 2012-13.
