Campaigners are pushing to have the UK create overseas constituencies, similar to the ones France has for its citizens abroad. French citizens abroad are represented by 11 MPs for overseas constituencies and 12 senators.
In 2024, all adult Britons abroad who have ever lived in the UK were extended / returned the right to vote in the country’s general elections and related referendums.
The current constituency-based electoral system leaves overseas constituents’ voices muted by a weak system of representation in Westminster. Voters abroad are represented by the MP in an area they may have left decades ago. These MPs are likely to have had little experience, and less impetus, of dealing with casework concerning citizens abroad. An MP specifically dealing with issues of British people living either permanently or temporarily abroad would better redress this
Interestingly, there has been very little input from British residents in France.
MPs don’t represent their own constituencies most of the time, so why would they give a tinker’s cuss for a fraction of a percent of Britons that live overseas?
I am in 2 minds about this, yes we need and deserve, as citizens, representation, but would they lump us all together in an inappropriate mishmash without the local shared experience of voters in UK constituencies?
The LibDems at the last election went halfway towards this by choosing one LD MP to represent all our diaspora. Better than nothing of course, but sadly the one they chose, Cheltenham I think, did not, against all expectations, get elected.
Do you know how the French organise this? Be interesting to know.
BTW this afternoon I filled in a survey from European Together (?) but not one question was related to this idea.
They also have 11 députés/MPs for overseas based French voters. Here are the 11 “constituencies”, loosely structured according to the numbers of registered French voters. Unusually it appears you can even vote by internet for these députés, presumably for sensible logistical reasons. 250,000 voted this way in 2022.
La loi du 22 juillet 2013 a profondément réformé la représentation des Français établis hors de France en créant des conseillers consulaires (aujourd’hui dénommés conseillers des Français de l’étranger) et en réformant l’Assemblée des Français de l’étranger.
La réforme introduite par la loi n° 2013-659 du 22 juillet 2013 relative à la représentation des Français établis hors de France prévoit que :
442 conseillers des Français de l’étranger sont élus pour 6 ans, au suffrage universel direct, dans 130 conseils consulaires, dont l’organisation et les attributions ont été précisées par décret. Le monde a été découpé en 15 circonscriptions, chacune devant compter de un à neuf conseillers des Français de l’étranger ;
parmi les 442 conseillers des Français de l’étranger, 90 sont élus par leurs pairs, pour siéger à l’Assemblée des Français de l’étranger (AFE), en réunion plénière, deux fois par an à Paris ;
68 délégués consulaires sont élus pour trois ans pour participer à l’élection des sénateurs.
Composé des 11 députés élus par les Français expatriés et des 12 sénateurs représentant les Français établis hors de France, des 442 conseillers des Français de l’étranger et de leurs 68 délégués, le collège électoral sénatorial des Français de l’étranger s’en trouve donc élargi, passant de 178 jusqu’en 2013, à 534 membres aujourd’hui.
Not Canada, just Greenland and UK and Nordics.
I am surprised that Australia/NZ has to share with Russia and Asia, would have thought there were enough French there.
This is a good idea,if this had been in place ten years ago when Brexit was rearing it,s ugly head,us Brits living in Europe may have had a chance of keeping their European citizenship,which would have made things a lot easier.Unfortunately,the clown show in charge at the time never gave it a thought in the Brexit deal.
Before Brexit,we were EU citizens and enjoyed all the benefits that came with that,after Brexit,we are no longer classed as European citizens.When you live in France it makes a massive difference.
Brexit was a tragic and unavoidable triumph of self harm.
Presumably most UK nationals living in France voted Remain but the 17,410,742 UK citizens who voted Leave, for whatever their subjective reasons, trumped the 16,141,241 who voted Remain. That is democracy.
Clearly, everyone is equally hurting now. We in France are just very fortunate that the gouvernement bent over backwards to enable us to stay with as many advantages as possible. Newcomers post Brexit are a little less fortunate but at least France doesn’t close the gate and pull up the drawbridge.
Yes I understand that fully. But what the court case established was that EU citizenship is not independent of national citizenship - when the Uk ceased to be an Eu member state British citizens “EU rights” also ceased, except as provided for by the Withdrawal Agreement.
Very regrettable, but that’s what the EU courts decided.
Worse than that, at some point it was recognised that we were hard done by and we were encouraged to apply. I did so and we got it for a year and then they snatched it away again.
