EXPATS BETRAYED

Disenfranchised Britons will not be able vote in UK’s crucial June general election

DESPITE the vow by the Conservative party in their 2015 election manifesto to guarantee votes for life for expats, long-term residents in Spain and other countries will once again be disenfranchised on June 8 in the UK’s snap general election.

A press officer for the ministry for constitutional affairs in London told Costa Blanca News on Wednesday that the franchise will be the same as for the 2015 general election.

This means that any British citizen who has lived outside the UK for more than 15 years will not be allowed to vote.

The press officer said that the UK government’s plan was to ‘get it done’ before 2020, claiming that it remains a priority for PM Theresa May’s team. “It is the nature of the snap election that it is on us very quickly,” he said.

In October last year, minister for the constitution, Chris Skidmore, MP, had renewed the Tory party’s commitment to expats, saying they would never again be prevented from voting in a UK general election.

At the time he said: “Recently, I also restated the government’s manifesto commitment to votes for life for British citizens living overseas, setting out for the first time how we intend to implement this policy change.

“Modern technology and cheaper air travel has transformed the ability of expats to keep in touch with their home country.

“If you were born in the UK, or have been a citizen living in the UK, then by the next general election, you will have an inalienable right to decide your country’s future.”

However, this promise has not come to fruition and expat campaigners have hit out at the ‘betrayal’.

David Burrage, a cofounder of the now defunct British Expats Association, said: “This matter of removing that repugnant and undemocratic 15 year rule was included in the Tory manifesto of April, 2015 but two years on and they have done nothing. This present government cannot be trusted.

“After all, how can one trust a PM who gives no less than five pledges not to call a general election and then immediately goes ahead and does so.”

A general election will be held on June 8 after MPs backed Theresa May's call for a snap poll, with Labour and the Lib Dems supporting the move.The PM argued a fresh mandate would strengthen her hand in Brexit talks and provide certainty for the future.

The next general election had been expected in 2020, but the Fixed Term Parliaments Act allows for one to be held earlier if it has the support of two-thirds of MPs.

Mrs May said there was a ‘window of opportunity’ to hold a poll before Brexit negotiations begin in earnest in June and that the country needed ‘strong leadership’ to make a success of the process.

Sir Roger Gale, MP, (Conservative) told expats that he had received ‘a number of queries about the status of the Votes for Life legislation.

He admitted: “It gives me no pleasure to have to say that there is no prospect of this process being expedited"

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