This is an article published in Conservatives Home. 26 March 2024.
In January the Prime Minister honoured a long-standing Conservative manifesto commitment of establishing ‘votes for life’ to British nationals living overseas.
This means over 3 million British citizens living abroad have regained their right to vote in British general elections and referendums. For Conservatives, this huge swathe of voters, outside of day-to-day constituency activities, could prove the difference between winning and losing in our key marginal battlegrounds.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats already know this. They’ve been working for years to block, delay, and drive away the biggest increase in the British electoral franchise since the introduction of full female suffrage in 1928. They know what this can mean for their chances in our heartlands as a largely Conservative base is given the power to vote.
It was Labour who were responsible for curtailing democratic freedoms through the introduction of the 15-year rule in 2001 and the Lib Dems hampering efforts to revert this during the 2010 – 2015 Coalition.
With the arbitrary 15-year limit on voting rights now scrapped, British citizens worldwide can register to vote online regardless of how long they have been overseas. This means that long-standing Tory voters, some of whom will feel forgotten by British politics, can voice their opinions in the ballot box at the upcoming General Election.
This will be linked to the last UK address they were either registered to vote at or lived at. With only several hundred votes needed in key marginals, this could make a real difference.
It is up to Conservatives across the world to spread this news, which the opposition would like to suppress. We cannot allow Tory voters, eager to support our Prime Minister at the ballot box, to be denied this hard-fought right.
In marginal seats, all our campaigning, hard work, and efforts to return a Conservative government should have the support of those life-long overseas voters who agree with our views of a global Britain. We must make it as clear that they now have this right to join their families and friends back home in voting for a Conservative government.
It has been the culmination of the ‘Votes for Life’ campaign, led by Conservatives Abroad, the Conservative Party’s global network of members and supporters overseas, who know how important it is to maintain a connection with the place they call home. This new measure puts Britain back on par with democracies such as the USA, France, Italy, and New Zealand in recognising the importance of their citizens worldwide.
Conservatives have both a duty and responsibility to spread this message. Through outreach to friends, family, and colleagues overseas, via social media channels and forums like this, and by offering to be a proxy voter. We have a real chance to remind overseas voters that it is this government that has re-franchised them, listened to their calls for a voice in future elections, and enabled this to happen.
The Conservatives have once again shown that we are the party for democracy and protecting an individual’s right to vote. It is time we made it count.
Heather Harper MBE is the Chairman of Conservatives Abroad.
