All UK citizens living abroad who were previously residents or registered voters in the UK can now vote in Parliamentary elections.

In a major shake up to the UK’s voting rules, from 16 January all British citizens overseas who have previously been resident or registered to vote in the UK are now eligible to vote in Parliamentary elections, regardless of the length of time that they have lived abroad. This removes the previous 15-year limit.

In addition, each registration will be valid for a period of 3 years rather than the current 1 year.

With a general election due at any point over the next twelve months, British citizens in Luxembourg and the surrounding countries should register as soon as possible to avoid running out of time and losing their chance to vote.

This is particularly true for those who have been away from the UK for many years, who may need time to locate necessary documentation and possibly provide extra evidence to prove their eligibility.

A UK National Insurance number and a document showing the address in the UK at which you were last registered to vote or lived would be a good start, but there are other options if you can’t locate those. Just take five minutes to click on this link to the UK government website and follow the instructions.

As Chair of the International Constituency of the UK Labour Party, I am working with a team of members to pass on the word about the new voting rules and help UK citizens abroad find their way around the new regulations.

Contact us on general-election@labourinternational.net if you have any questions or need help.

Overseas voting may be carried out by post, or via a proxy who is resident in the UK. Delays and ballot papers going missing have been an issue with the postal method in the past, so voters should consider the far more reliable and secure proxy option, which you can find at this link.

Proxies in the UK can also proxy vote by post, therefore they do not need to be in the same constituency as the person on whose behalf they are voting; postal voting within the UK is generally more reliable than international post. Voters who need to find a proxy, or people in the UK who are willing to act as proxies, can contact us by email on proxyvotes@labourinternational.net.

Some readers may have heard of Harry Shindler MBE, a Labour International member and long-standing campaigner for these UK 'Votes for Life', who was a veteran of the Anzio landings in World War II and settled in Italy after the war. He unfortunately did not live to exercise his right to vote again as a British citizen, since he died in 2023 aged 101, but would have been delighted to see his campaigning work rewarded and a basic democratic right returned to all UK citizens living abroad.

Of course, the date of the election has not yet been set, but let’s make sure that we are ready to put this democratic deficit right, so that British citizens abroad never again find themselves excluded from voting on decisions which concern them, their families and their livelihoods.

Fiona Urquhart Johnstone
Chair
Labour International CLP

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