British expats must be made to feel more valued by the UK government to encourage more expats to vote, according to a cross-party group of parliamentarians, but only those who have been away for not more than 15 years.
The group came about after “it became apparent that there was a serious problem of non-registration by British citizens living abroad.”
The Institute for Public Policy Research has estimated that 5.6 million British nationals live abroad. But the number registered to vote in UK parliamentary elections as of December 2011 was 23,366.
What is not known is how many of the 5.6 million are eligible to vote. Some will be younger than 18 years and some will have lived abroad for 15 or more years.
“Some estimate”, the report said, “that the current number eligible to register is in the region of 3 million, which, if correct, means that less than one per cent of those eligible are actually registered”.
“This level of disenfranchisement in the United Kingdom would be deemed totally unacceptable”, it noted.
The report recognised that many expats “remain fiercely loyal to the UK”, and that the majority are not pensioners, but UK nationals working abroad. They pointed out that expats contribute to the economy through working for British companies, and are also a political resource.
"British citizens living abroad are effective agents in spreading British influence. Many nations recognise and treat their citizens overseas as a major asset. The United Kingdom is not among them," they said.
The group recommends that efforts be made to emphasise the importance of UK citizens abroad and to stress the value of their votes. A Cabinet Office minister should be given responsibility for coordinating information.
"Our citizens living overseas should be made to feel valued. That is an essential prerequisite for encouraging them to vote."
"They are in many respects the neglected voters or rather non-voters," they added, saying that perhaps this is based on "various myths" about British expats.
The report said the existing system of postal voting or voting by proxy is unnecessarily complicated.
The only alternative is to vote in person, because there is no online system. Even the online registration process means downloading a form and posting it back. The group suggested that the government should undertake a feasibility study of electronic voting for expatriates.
