There’s still time to give all ex-pats a proper say in the EU referendum

The great British diaspora has a huge stake in the result and its millions of votes could be crucial

Ihave been captivated by a TV programme about a family that is down on its luck in its own country and emigrates to another, where the mother and children desperately miss their native culture and fail miserably to learn their hosts’ language or to integrate properly into the local community. Who are these people? Syrians in search of a new life, maybe; or Somalis risking all to get to Europe, perhaps? Actually, it’s the Durrells.

In the 1930s, a widowed Louisa Durrell uprooted her four younger children and headed for Corfu. They were economic migrants looking for better prospects, just as the British have always done. Their pre-war sojourn is the basis for ITV’s Sunday night programme based loosely on the writings of Gerald Durrell.

Few people are driven by a greater wanderlust than our own. For 300 years after the Mayflower sailed for the New World in 1620, Britain was not an immigrant nation; it was an emigrant one. Until relatively recently, there were few occasions when net migration to the UK was positive. Of the millions of Europeans who journeyed to America in the 19th century, a third of them were from Britain and Ireland. Passenger statistics show that between 1853 and 1913, an astonishing 13 million British citizens left the land of their birth, bound mainly for North America, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Many were travellers and adventurers who came back; but cumulative net emigration was equivalent to 13 per cent of the population, mostly those aged between 18 and 45. AJP Taylor observed in his English History 1914-45 that before the Great War more young men were leaving the country every year than died on the battlefields of Europe.

This desire to move helped create an empire and gave the world a common tongue. Even today, we remain the most dispersed nationality on the planet. There are 41 countries where at least 10,000 Britons reside and a further 60 with British communities of more than 1,000 souls. The Government estimates that 2.2 million British citizens live in the EU’s 27 other countries, and roughly the same number of EU citizens live here (second only to Germany). Three million more Brits can be found dotted around the globe, principally in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. An estimate by the World Bank suggests the British diaspora is the largest of any rich country and the eighth biggest overall. And more would go if they could. A poll conducted a few years ago found that 10 million Britons would be happy to live elsewhere if they had the chance.

So, what is the difference between expats and immigrants (a third category – of émigré – has been replaced by the political refugee)? In theory, the former always hold open the option of returning home while the latter don’t. Yet our immigration figures, which are based on something called the International Passenger Survey and are notoriously unreliable, do not make this distinction. They count as immigrants people coming here to stay for a year or more, and therefore include someone seconded on business intending to return home or a family planning to spend the rest of their days in the country. Most Brits abroad, and especially those living in Europe, would consider themselves to be expats, not immigrants, even if they propose to stay away for good. Other than, perhaps, in their age profile – expat Brits tend to be older – are they any different from a Polish family settled in Kent? In our debate over immigration, we operate double standards.

But one thing is clear: Brits living in the EU have a stake in what happens in the referendum on June 23, since their status will inevitably change were we to leave. Yet many of them don’t have a vote. The rules are that anyone who has lived overseas for more than 15 years is disenfranchised. This is an arbitrary cut-off point and one that has varied in the past between five and 20 years. In their election manifesto the Conservatives promised to abolish this restriction, but had not got around to doing so by the time the legislation for the referendum was passed last year.

Any day now the High Court will rule on a case brought by two expats, Second World War veteran Harry Shindler, 94, who lives in Italy, and Jacquelyn MacLennan, a lawyer living in Belgium. They are seeking to overturn the 15-year rule on two principal grounds: first, it is disproportionate because it prevents from voting the very people likely to be most affected by the outcome of the referendum; and second, it penalises people for exercising their free movement rights in breach of EU law. Indeed, lawyers for the claimants don’t call them expatriates but “Britons in Europe”.

The Government insists it is operating the same voting rules applied in a general election but this is not the case. Indeed, there are some perplexing anomalies. For instance, Irish or Commonwealth citizens living in Gibraltar for any length of time can vote in the referendum, whereas a UK citizen resident in Gibraltar who has been out of the country for 15 years can’t. What is the rationale behind that? Similarly, members of the House of Lords, whether or not resident in the UK, have a vote in the referendum but not in parliamentary elections. The Government has not even tried to explain the thinking behind these inconsistencies, arguing that the date of the referendum will be put in doubt if the law has to be changed to accommodate long-term expats. This is hard to believe. Ministers have acknowledged that the legislation to scrap the 15-year rule was already well advanced, so it could be introduced as an emergency measure.

Since there are still 57 days of the campaign to go, there is time to amend the law and for the expats who wish to register to do so. It is not clear how many will, mind you; but there has been a marked rise in registration in recent weeks among those who are already eligible. In a close contest – and according to the latest ORB poll in this newspaper it is very close – the votes of a few million expats would have a significant impact. Even without a change in the 15-year rule, the votes of Brits living abroad could prove crucial. But to which side? Perhaps it is because they don’t know the answer that ministers are reluctant to give way.