THE UK government has said it plans to end the 15-year limit on the right of British people living overseas to vote in UK general elections.
Legislation will be introduced enabling people to vote in time for the 2020 election, it said in a policy paper.
It follows a long campaign waged by World War Two veteran Harry Shindler (pictured).
“We shall vote at the next general election,” he said. “All those who have taken part in this long campaign will know that it was worth it, and as we kept saying, we will win because we are right.”
The proposal, which was in the 2015 Conservative manifesto, would allow overseas British citizens who have been previously resident or registered to vote in the UK, to vote in future UK parliamentary elections.
They would not be allowed to vote in local elections, elections to the Welsh Assembly, Holyrood or Stormont.
Also with the fallout from Brexit still unsure, those British people living in the EU may yet lose their right to vote in local elections in their adopted countries.