They are the MP for their constituents, and after being out of the UK for 15 years you are no longer one of their constituents.
Perhaps Keir Starmer will persuade Labour not to oppose the next attempt to re-enfranchise us UK citizens who are currently penalised for being out of the UK for 15 plus years.
Grahame Pigney
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It changed on the multiple occasions when the legislation about voting rights changed.
Voting rights have been extended on a number of occasions (usually by the Tories) and reduced on others (usually by Labour).
If you aren’t a constituent the MP has no obligation to represent you.
Grahame Pigney
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I remember being told by a lady in the electoral commission in Bristolbefore we came out here, just over eleven years ago that an MP could be contacted by a previous constituent, even though they had lost voting rights.
This is, obviously, yet another right that has been taken away from overseas UK citizens.
If your previous constituency has a particularly conscientious MP he/she may respond to you.
But they have no obligation to do so once you have been disqualified as a UK voter because you have been resident outside the UK for 15 years plus.
If the Tories live up to their promises (don’t all laugh out loud) and Labour stop blocking government and private member’s bills perhaps all UK citizens will be able to vote in UK Parliamentary elections and referenda.
Grahame Pigney
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Hmmm, we still have an address in UK (which is rented out) and that’s where I’m on the electoral register and vote. Since we pay council tax and income tax in the UK I don’t feel bad about this since I can no longer vote here. I wonder if anyone will realise in a few years that I don’t have the right to vote?
NoT sure your statement adds up unless you have an unusual rental agreement. You may own a properly in the constituency where you last lived but your tenant pays all the outgoings which includes council tax.
I could claim any number of properties in the UK but tenants pay all the outgoings not me. Your right to a uk vote is based on where you last lived and it has nothing to do with whether or not you owned or rented,.
If you were UK Resident with a gite in France that you claimed for and paid french tax you dont have the right to vote in France.
Surely when you have reached your 15 years absence from the uk it’s the end of the line for any voting rights.
Unless of course you are fortunate enough to keep your UK property as a bolt hole without a tenant then indeed it is you paying the council tax. There must be a very large pile of post when you return
Not that simple, as has been stated endlessly on this forum. For those of us who are retired and have UK state pensions and (in some cases) UK company pensions, what happens in the UK is of vital importance and has nothing to do with “bashing” the country where many of us spent a significant part of our lives. The health and wellbeing of the UK economy continues to be of vital importance to us if we are to be able to continue to live financially secure lives and “happily settled” in another country, and it is frustrating to be voiceless.
And this may be only part of our frustration. If we have family and friends still living in the UK and we are contemplating with something approaching horror, their long term futures and whether they will have financially secure futures and the ability to remain “happily settled” in their country of choice (if choice it in fact is).
I may have posted about this a year ago when I was seeking information regarding taking my dogs to the UK.
To cut a long story short, my MP who is a far right wing brexiteer and member of the ERG, said, that as I lived abroad she had no obligation to represent me.
I researched this in the House of commons database, and found that there is a legal obligation for an MP to represent you as long as you are registered on the Electoral Roll. This must be the electoral roll of the last place you resided in the UK.
I contacted my local electoral officer who confirmed this.
You must have contacted your local electoral office and let them know you have left the UK and give them your current overseas address. You are then classed as an overseas voter on the electoral roll. You have to annually apply for this to be renewed.
Currently this right ceases after 15 years.
Despite this your MP can just ignore you and there is nothing you can do about it. There is no recourse against an incompetent MP. Your only option is to take it up with the chair of the constituency party. Like that will do any good
It’s a judgement call, and I don’t criticise anybody for the conclusion they come to (although I think Andy’s point about not having unrealistic expectations is well made).
For me personally, the ‘friends and family’ argument is weak: although I have a daughter and other family and friends in the UK, I also have them in other countries where there is no question of me having a vote or other representation.
There is more substance in the financial interests argument - I will get a UK pension - but for us we have more interests in France now.
For me, it seems wrong to claim equal voting and representation rights to somebody that actually lives in the UK, and has to live every day with the consequences of their votes, etc - but I also understand this judgement depends on personal circumstances and feelings, which are different for everybody.
We have currently been disenfranchised in France. I now have no vote in the European elections, which is fair enough. I have no vote in the national elections, as I am not a French citizen, again fair enough. However, I have now lost my right to vote in the municipal elections and have been removed from the French Electoral roll.
I am tax resident in France but have no right to representation.
I also pay taxes in the UK, should I be removed from the register in the UK, I would be paying taxes in two nations and not have a right to representation in either
You are totally right. this is a situation where we are almost totally forgotten as citizens.
Canada has just changed its voting rights for its overseas citizens and it is about time the UK did so too.
The Tories promised they would in their Election Manifesto, but instead supported a Private Member’s Bill that was talked out by one of their own MPs.
BoJo admitted in the House yesterday that he was totally respnsible for the government’s actions. I am surprised that Keir Starmer did not suggest that he should do the honourable thing and resign .
I think we are increasingly living in a world where the old models no longer meet people’s needs. Glad to hear Canada is recognising this and changing
I have friends whose children / siblings live in Canada / the US / Russia (wife from Siberia)/Australia/New Zealand/Thailand/Singapore/Hong Kong/and so on. They are “polynational” in some cases living abroad for many years but not necessarily adopting the nationality of the countries where they live - though their children do. We need governments of the countries they live in to recognise that there are world citizens who want to have representation, especially, as Andy observes, they pay taxes. (We too pay taxes in the UK and France.)
But the ‘no taxation without representation’ argument is fundamentally flawed, isn’t it?
There are at least 4 problems with it:
Do you really ‘pay’ tax - was the taxed income ever really yours?
If you believe paying tax should allow you to vote, what happens to people who don’t pay tax?
On the other hand, everybody is really taxed regardless of nationality or residence whenever they buy anything in or from a country anyway - since much of it is indirect taxation like VAT (in the UK I believe around half of all tax is in this form)
If you pay tax in multiple countries, should you then get multiple votes?
