3.5 million unheard voices
The next general election will almost certainly be the first since a provision of the Elections Act (2022) granted the right to vote in UK elections to British citizens who have lived overseas for more than 15 years.
It is estimated that 3.5 million UK nationals currently residing outside the country will this time be able to vote. Yet to do so, they must register in constituencies in which they have not lived for many years or decades.
British citizens living overseas are poorly represented and neglected by the UK’s current constituency system. Distributed throughout the country according to their last UK address, they make up only a tiny percentage of each constituency’s population.
This makes it easy for MPs to overlook the needs of overseas citizens, since even in the era of the 15-year eligibility rule, there was little electoral jeopardy associated with losing their support. Nor do MPs need to worry much about hearing from them at in-person MP surgeries. This lack of incentive for MPs under the current system to listen to those who reside abroad and MPs lack of familiarity with the challenges UK citizens abroad face, creates an effective two-tier system for UK citizenship: those with informed and motivated representation, and those without.
In its policy paper explaining the rationale for removing the 15-year limit, the government rightly observed that most UK citizens overseas retain ties to this country. Many still have family here, some will return here. Many will have a lifetime of hard work in the UK behind them, and some will have fought for the country. The government also recognises that Britons overseas are sometimes directly affected by decisions made in Parliament – for example, on foreign policy, defence, immigration, or pensions. Yet, without a proper voice in that body, the interests of UK citizens abroad are sidelined.
The 3.5 million overseas citizens now eligible to vote will continue to have no real champion in parliament. So much for the government’s claim to be helping to create “a democracy that works for everyone.”
Overseas constituencies, returning dedicated representatives for different regions in the world to the UK parliament, would help to deliver proper representation for every UK citizen, regardless of where they live. The concerns of UK citizens abroad are more likely to align with other former UK residents who now live alongside them overseas. MPs for specific overseas areas in which these shared interests - such as post-Brexit arrangements in terms of pensions - are very common would be able to act more effectively on behalf of these citizens in parliament.
The introduction of overseas constituencies need not lead to a bloated House of Commons and additional public expense - a small number of additional overseas MPs could be offset by an equivalent reduction in the current number of UK constituencies, with the new boundaries calculated by the Boundary Commission, as part of the next boundary review. The need to rearrange constituencies is in any case inevitable. Removing the 15-year rule on overseas citizens voting eligibility will, over time, lead to those new eligible voters registering to vote in their previous UK constituency, increasing the numbers of voters in constituencies, to eventually exceed the optimal average-sized constituency.
Alternatively, the overseas constituencies’ MPs could be added to the existing House of Commons membership, at the cost of the extra MPs’ salaries, that of their staff, an office abroad and a small increase in travel allowances.
Britain is currently lagging behind fellow European countries such as France and Italy (and a total of 17 countries world wide which have overseas constituencies’ MPs) in effective representation of overseas citizens.
Parliament and government is neglecting those living abroad.
With the possibility of a change of government after a general election that is expected next year, and electoral reform bills to extend the right to vote to 16- and 17-year-olds and residents in the UK who cannot currently vote, a window of opportunity is opening for overseas constituencies’ legislation.
With our partners New Europeans, we encourage overseas citizens to write to their MPs to urge them to back overseas constituencies.
And you can, too - just click here.
Join the campaign for overseas constituencies and more effective representation and recognition for 3.5 million unheard voices.
Jake Lancefield
Work experience student at Unlock Democracy