So Brits who live abroad can now vote in the General Election.

Annie1 How much do you know about the local issues in the constituency you belong to in the UK? What local issues do people discuss outside school? or at the Post Office? Where are the most potholed roads, What issues does the local school have, which roads had problems with the drains when we had the heavy rains? which culverts got blocked.

In my village and my constiuency, those are the issues that will swing the election one way or the other and that has little to do with party politics. My seat is a pretty safe |Conservative seat, but an extra dozen or so expat votes will have no effect whatsoever on the result of the election in this constituency - and that will apply to most constituencies. Even if there was a specific expat constituency, it would only provide one ot two MPs, highly unlikely to significantly alter an election result. Very close elections cause hung parliaments and new elections.

I am strongly opposed to expat votes, but I also do not think their votes are anywhere near as significant as they like to think they would be.

If there is a change it will be all the floating voters with no party alliegance, fed up that 'temporary' lane restrictions on our railway bridge have been there for over 2 years, with no end in sight, it will people in the villages worried about the planned reservoir and its affect on the local flood plain. Our village was badly flooded a few weeks ago and roads that didn't flood in 2007 flooded this year because lots of new houses have been built on the flood plain.

they care about their mother country

Not so much. They decided that another country offered a better life. Fair enough. So they should get on with their better life abroad and leave the rest of us to sort out Britain. The fifteen year rule, now abandoned, was a perfectly acceptable middle way. A lifelong entitlement to vote in British elections is immoral if taken up. My daughter currently lives in New Zealand. I made it my business to find out what their rules are yesterday. Citizens of NZ can vote in elections if they are living abroad for the first three years of their time abroad. After that, they must return to NZ if they wish to vote. Sounds reasonable to me. It’s the recognition that those who leave to live long term or permanently elsewhere have their interests in another country. They have left their country because they believe their interests are better served by living elsewhere.

Saggi

Wrong . You decide to vacate this country …you have absolutely no right to vote !

That’s no longer the case . So everyone had to get used it .

Saggi

Wrong . You decide to vacate this country …you have absolutely no right to vote !

I think that there should be a period of time when you can still vote but my Godmother has lived out of the country for the last 50 years and has no intention of returning so it is a mystery why she should still get a vote. However, quite a lot of my family went with her and then came back after 10 years so they would have had a vested interest. It's a difficult one.

Wrong . You decide to vacate this country …you have absolutely no right to vote !

I heartily agree with all of Mamie's posts.
The British people I know here in Canada were all born, educated and employed in the UK. They worked in the NHS, Education and other Public Services. They care about their mother country and read the newspapers, watch BBC news online and listen to radio 4 etc.. The technology to keep abreast of what is happening in the UK is at our fingertips and of course we return to visit friends and family. Most of us are pretty disallusioned with the present Government.

Katie59 Your Aunt will need to register as an overseas voter.https://www.gov.uk/vote-uk-election
One has to register annually. After she has completed the registration form she will receive confirmation that she is registered. Then she has to fill another form in to apply for a postal vote.
Whether she pays tax in the UK or not is irrelevant. She is eligible to vote if a British citizen.

Here is a tribute to World War II veteran Harry Shindler OBE, without whom this might never have happened.
www.britishineurope.org/articles/115157-harry-shindler-1922-2023

I’ve just visited an aunt in Australia now 92 still has British citizenship she will be delighted that she can vote, I guess she has to apply for a postal vote.

Wether she should is a different matter, most expats are likely to be higher income and support the Tories, the change in rules allows them to scrape a few extra votes together.

Thank you Syracute. The other thing that surprises me is why this has suddenly become a topic of discussion. It was announced over two years ago and has made due process through the legislature. Surely people who disagree should have raised their objections when Boris Johnson first proposed it? It wasn't headline news, but certainly covered in the media.

nanna8

Not a question of loyalty or non loyalty though. Many of us who were born in the Uk still like the place , believe it or not. There are many, many reasons why people leave. Not all of us despised the place. No, I think the reason we shouldn’t vote is because we are out of touch with what is going on. We only hear biased views from reporters and people on forums like this. We are not really in a position to judge who will be good and who will not. From what I hear, I wouldn’t vote for Starmer but that is just it, I only hear a small amount. I wouldn’t vote for Sunsk, either, come to that. He might be a wonderful leader for all I know from a distance.Just don’t hear much at all - nothing to go on.

Do you not read UK newspapers ? I keep in touch with the USA that way. You can even access various news per TV etc. so if you are out of touch than that’s your choice but that’s not the case with most people.

I have lived in France for ten years.. my children, grandchildren sisters and wider family are all still there in the UK and of course it’s the motherland so we still care about what happens over there and the impact on our families.. we pay tax there still too. we can’t vote in French national elections but take an interest in what goes on here politically too.

Mamie

MOnica I pay tax in the UK on my UK occupational pension because that is what HMRC and the double taxation treaty demands. So does everyone else who worked in government, local government, NHS, military etc. I have already explained that I have no vote in France.
I would like to ask a question of people who think that British passport holders who live abroad should have no vote in the UK.
Do you think that migrant foreign nationals who do not have British passports, but work and pay taxes in the UK should have the vote?

You are making very good points here. I am not sure everyone is listening or even reading properly here your responses. I also have a right to vote in the USA. There is the argument that US citizens are required to file taxes, but I don’t earn enough to pay. I still very much care about what goes on in the USA. I am also very well read on what’s happening so I feel very much in tune with what’s going on there. So many of you here would think that I shouldn’t vote because I don’t pay taxes ? Mamie has explained very well why she should have a right to vote. Not having a say is terrible.

JCFrance

Some of us are desperate to return to the UK but it’s not always possible. I have filled in all the relevant forms and I’m looking forward to voting.

I don't understand JCFrance? The UK cannot refuse you, the NHS won't refuse you. A return is possible.

Some of us are desperate to return to the UK but it’s not always possible. I have filled in all the relevant forms and I’m looking forward to voting.

Totally agree. I have a few friends in same position. Lived abroad for 30/40 years.

I am overseas but my home is in the same constituency where i am still a member of the Conservative party. I waited to see the comments about the Tories allowing people overseas to
vote but i read in the broadsheets that many countries allow their citizens overseas to vote. So is that wrong too? I pay my taxes in UK on all my income. I read UK papers watch UK TV and am up to date on what is going on in UK. My son here has registered to vote in Westminstert too. I am often in touch with my MP Tulip Sididiq about the way animals for export are treated because one of my subs is to Compassion for farmed animals. I belong to different charities and am English to my bootstraps. So no taxation without representation. I see WWM is a bit ageist. Pointing out that overseas people who work overseas are mainly young and may return to their home country. So she differentiates old from young voters. Ageist or what? I do follow UK politics and i am sure Labour will form the next govt. i know as much about British politics as most voters and while i am alive i will vote in UK and nowhere else!

Surely this is an obvious way to grab more votes - Brits abroad are more likely to vote Conservative, as I understand it. There is no way the Tories would have adopted this if they did not feel it was to their advantage. I presume this has been researched by the party 'machine', because I think many ex-pats have been adversely affected by Brexit, and this may have changed their allegiance.

M0nica

I have been offline for two days, so I am picking up a point several pages back.

There is more to beung invested in the UK than keeping up to date with the news and politics. It is, to use a stupid in phrase. It is about living experience of the country. Knowing the ins and outs of everyday life, the changes, the things that bother people in everyday life experiencing the current state of the NHS, the appalling state of the roads, how much support your local MP has given your community in opposing a huge infrastructure development. How good your local councillor is. These are the events that shape people's voting intentions.

The votes that count are the votes of people who are not tied to political parties and move fom one to the other, the 'floating' voters. For them it is the local issues and national issues that affect them locally that decide how they vote and who governs us.

There is no way someone living in another country can have that intimate knowledge.

That describes me, I am a floating voter. I care very much for our country both locally and nationally. I am however very sceptical about any of the main parties so I have no idea how I will vote in the next GE. I'm very frustrated with a new candidate in our area who doesn't live anywhere near here, who seems to be promising the earth (literally - our village is fighting a losing battle for sea defences), with obviously no guarantees - because there can't be any.

Nandalot

It didn’t even go to a vote in parliament. It was a statutory instrument. Do they think ex pats are likely to vote with the government?

They must think that and may well be right.

Anyone who holds a British passport and who is legally an adult should be able to vote, irrespective of where they live.

There are many reasons for living in another country, and those who move and no longer feel British, apply for citizenship wherever they have taken up permanent residence.

British people living temporarily abroad for work or other reasons should be allowed to vote.

The right to vote has nothing to do with where one pays taxes,
British people living outside the UK may well be paying tax both in the UK and wherever they are earning their monthly salary, but this is unlikely to give them the right to vote in a general election in their country of residence, although they may, as is the case in Denmark, be eligible to vote in municipal elections.

I want my vote because:

I care about the country I was born in, after a recent visit I am even more appalled by many things, as mentioned by many posters.

I worry constantly about the future of the country that my DCs and DGCs live in.

One day I will need to go back, at the moment that thought depresses me, and if my vote contributes to what could be improvements then good. But as I am now on my own I do not want to be a burden to my children in my dotage.

I have had an annus horribilis and living in a soap opera. Apart from my home catching fire, dog suddenly dying and having my very old cat put to sleep the same week, I was abandonned last summer by an abusive, alcoholic husband who has done so many malicious, vindictive things, and left me for a younger woman. The Gendarme, social services , bank etc could not have been more supportive and protective, friends living in UK say I would not have had such a high level of care in England. And the local community both French and English have been amazing, some that I hardly knew. Having said all that I am now happier than I have been for years, but desperately missing my dog.

If there should be another referendum I want to be able to vote. I couldn't for the last one that led to Brexit and caused and is still causing so many problems. I consider it a scandal that I and other expats were denied the right to vote when it affected our lives so much. I now cannot vote here so totally disenfranchised. Without this UK vote it was a horrible feeling, I felt a displaced person, and came to France as a member of the EU. I did not expect this to change so disastrously.

Absolutely crazy yet my German friend and Dutch friend have lived and paid into the Country's coffers for over 20 years but were not allowed to vote in the Brexit Referendum.

Nandalot - I think you've hit the nail on the head! That's precisely what they're thinking and hoping for!

I fully agree with you, Nandalot! If someone willingly moves to another country permanently from England then they should have no more rights to vote in UK elections etc.