The Elections Act 2022 received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. Section 14, amending sections 1 and 2 of the Representation of the People Act 1985, removed the 15-year limit that had hitherto applied to electoral registration of British citizens who reside abroad. Following the commencement of the Representation of the People (Overseas Electors) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 on 16 January 2024, overseas voters were able to register to vote in July’s General Election; they did so either at the last address they were registered to vote before leaving or, for newly eligible voters, at the last address they were resident in the UK before emigrating. This post argues that the establishment of overseas constituencies in UK Parliamentary elections is a further desirable electoral reform.

The political removal of the 15-year bar followed an unsuccessful legal challenge in the European Court of Human Rights, brought by the late harry Shindler OBE, which I have previously discussed on this blog. In the Department for Levelling up, Housing & Communities Policy Paper of 2 February 2022, the government offered the following rationales:

• First, most British citizens overseas retain deep ties to the UK. Many still have family here, some will return here. Many will have a lifetime of hard work in the UK behind them, and some will have fought for our country.
• Second, advances in technology have enabled high-speed global communications, allowing British citizens to follow domestic affairs in real-time.
• Third, Britons overseas are directly affected by decisions made in Parliament – for example, on foreign policy, defence, immigration, or pensions. It is therefore right that they have a voice in elections to that body.

Yet, in our constituency-based electoral system, overseas constituents’ voices are substantively muted by a weak system of representation in Westminster. They are represented by the MP in an area they may have left decades ago. These MP are likely to have had little experience of dealing with case works concerning citizens abroad. Their concerns are, by definition, dwarfed by those of most constituents who live in the territorial jurisdiction.

An overseas constituency is an electoral district located outside of the state territory borders that is designated as a district for the representation of eligible voters residing there. 17 countries of different sizes and electoral systems have overseas constituencies; in Europe alone, this includes countries as diverse as Croatia, France, Italy, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Portugal, and Romania.

There are three key rationales for establishing overseas constituencies:

• First, aligned concerns and interests: overseas voters’ concerns and interests are more likely to align with electors formerly resident in other UK constituencies who now reside alongside them abroad. In the European/EU context, this is particularly acute given challenges arising from loss of EU citizenship and divergent practices across the EU-27 in respect of the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.
• Second, acquired expertise: overseas constituents will have an opportunity to have their voice clearly heard through designated and effective representation, building casework expertise.
• Third, simplification: moving from registering for and voting in 650 Westminster constituencies to registering for and voting in overseas constituencies by dint of being a UK citizen will make registration and voting easier.

The charity I chair, New Europeans UK, has been campaigning for overseas constituencies. At their recent Autumn conference, the Liberal Democrats voted for a policy motion supporting their establishment. Should this policy be adopted by the government, boundary division would need to be established by the Boundary Commission. A possible division might be as follows: North/West Europe; Central/East Europe; South Europe; Australia & New Zealand; the Americas; Africa; the Middle East; and rest of Asia. The exact number would be determined based on the proportion of overseas constituents of the overall electorate. It is likely that the promise of effective representation will lead to a higher number of registered overseas voters; therefore, the creation of overseas constituencies should not necessarily come at the expense of existing constituencies: if the electorate is larger, and the number of electors per seat remains the same, there should be more MPs.

Read more:

• Proposed Voter ID Reforms in the UK: The Dangers of ‘Fraud’ Based Regulation.
• Case C-673/20 EP v Préfet du Gers: The Stripping of the Right to Vote.
• Direct Democracy in Action: Swiss Voters Decide to Augment the Statutory Old Age Pension.
• Stripping a state of its statehood: Disenfranchisement of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.