The High Court of England and Wales ruled on Thursday that Britons living in Europe for over 15 years will not be given the right to vote on the upcoming EU referendum, as is practice for expat Britons. A group of Britons living on the continent brought the case to Court claiming they had been disenfranchised, however Lord Justice Lloyd Jones who gave the ruling said that this complied with EU law, the FT reports.

Nevertheless there are between 1m and 2m Britons living in the EU under their rights as British and EU citizens; the majority of these have living outside Britain for more than 15 years and will thus be unable to vote on 23rd June according to the FT. It is unknown exactly how many people will be affected by the ruling. In explaining the reasoning behind the Court’s ruling, Lord Justice Jones said that changing the rules would present practical challenges for the government, as there would be no straightforward means of checking the previous residence status of Britons who have not been resident in the country for 15 years, which would be required along with a new electoral register. The government has commented on the matter saying that giving these British citizens the vote would call into question the ability of holding this referendum on 23rd June, given the practical difficulties.

Aidan O’Neill QC, who represented the disenfranchised Britons, said that his clients were not expats, unlike those who have moved to other parts of the world, as they were exercising their rights as British citizens to live and work anywhere in the European Union, and wanted to vote. “Every day of their daily lives they are relying on the fact of their British citizenship and membership of the UK in the EU.” Richard Stein, who is also providing legal advice and support to the claimants in this case, said that they would appeal the ruling made by the High Court and take the matter to the UK Supreme Court “so that all British citizens living elsewhere in the EU can be part of the democratic process to vote in this referendum which will have a very real impact on their lives.”

Disenfranchised; a gross injustice

We do need to clear this matter up straight away; the government is absolutely disenfranchising British citizens, whether it complies with EU law or not. In fact, they haven’t even denied this. Their only defence has been ‘it would be too complicated’. The fact that the Cameron Ministry has been rushing this whole process from the start has been very much clear in my mind. But the fact that that very fact is now being used to disenfranchise British citizens – take their democratic right to vote away – is absolutely preposterous.

And yes, you can hear it now, the Brexiteers calling that “this is the way it has always been; everyone who hasn’t lived in Britain for 15 years loses their right to participate”. Firstly, let’s examine that statement again: any Briton who has left the country for more than 15 years loses their right to take part in the democratic process? German, Spanish and American citizens can vote in general elections and other such votes, regardless of how long they have been outside the country. Apparently they have the technical capacity to achieve this difficult endeavour. France and Italy actually have designated constituencies abroad, so that you actually have a designated representative in the Italian and French legislatures. Apparently, this is too difficult for the oldest democratic nation-state in Europe. It’s beyond the Commons, whose members endlessly go on about the sovereignty of Parliament, to actually legislate in favour of Britons living abroad. You didn’t think of that Mr. Cameron? Knowing that you’d be holding a referendum in the next two years, and that British democracy is wholly unprepared for the challenges of democratic government in the modern world? Knowing you’d be most likely to be campaigning for remain, you didn’t think to get as many people on the electoral register as possible?

And to make matters worse, it’s not as if we are playing games here. This isn’t some 19th Century bourgeois depiction of the citizen who’s duty is to vote and take part in the community and be a gentlemanly member of civil society, who’s being deprived of their liberty and so on (although it is that too). No. This is peoples’ lives which rest on this very vote. We’re not talking about a general election, in which is makes no difference to expats living in South Africa whether the Tories or Labour get in. Peoples’ lives have been constructed on the very rights which are being voted on and may be taken away, and now the government and the courts tell us that those same people will not be able to vote on whether their own rights are deprived from them or not? Their right to live and work in the EU as a European – that is what we are voting on, and that is what these people are exercising. And the High Court rules that they don’t get to vote on their rights, and the government tells us “it would be too complicated to be democratic, so we’ll just leave it until some other time”. Really? Surely Britain has fallen far from the days when we were held up a symbol, by the rest of the world, when they had the dream of democratic government. They thought Britain showed everyone that it could work. Now Britain has to look across the waters to find out what modern democracy means.

Sources: FT