Whatever happened to the overseas vote?

You’d have thought that having some 2.1 million more UK citizens overseas being eligible to vote this year, bringing the total number of eligible overseas voters to 3.5 million – a potential electorate almost the size of Scotland’s – might have made some waves in the UK general election. But this wasn’t the case.

Despite the Electoral Commission joining forces with the three main political parties, plus the groups Brits in Europe and Bremain in Spain, to encourage British citizens abroad to register to vote, it seems clear from projections that the number of overseas registrations has failed to match registration figures for the 2017 and 2019 elections, even with many more eligible voters in play.

In the 2019 general election, more than 200,000 Brits abroad registered to vote, around 15 per cent of the estimated 1.4 million eligible voters. The number is almost certain to be under 200,000 for 2024 – just six per cent of the new eligible electorate total.

Source: Electoral Commission, Overseas Electors, Table 5. [The 2024 figure includes 19,806 registrations between 5^thJuly 2023 and 15^thJanuary 2024, plus 171,666 registrations between 16^thJanuary and the 18^th June 2024 cut-off — a projected total of 191,472 registrations, subject to verification by local councils.]

There are several reasons for the relatively low registration rate. Firstly, overseas voters had to renew their registration annually until this year, when overseas registrations become valid for three years. While the EU referendum in 2016 and three general elections in 2015, 2017 and 2019 came in rapid succession, the much longer five-year gap from 2019 to 2024 led gradually to a big drop in numbers re-registering annually, until the surge of newly-enfranchised voters began on January 16, 2024.

Secondly, the registration levels in 2016, 2017 and 2019 were all fuelled by a keen interest in the Brexit issue – whether against or in favour. This time around, the major political parties all downplayed the issue of Europe deliberately for fear of alienating their target voters at home.

Finally, many overseas voters faced challenges in registering due to lack of documentary proof that they ever lived in their constituency, especially the newly enfranchised (those who had lived outside the UK for more than 15 years). Many have found that local council records do not stretch so far back in time.

There was also no big policy offer for Brits abroad that might have stimulated turnout. No political party came out with a policy to unfreeze the pensions of half a million British retirees abroad in countries such as Australia and Canada. This would have been a clear vote winner and probably would have stimulated voter participation.

Then, of course, there is the current fiasco of the overseas postal vote. Ballots were not received in time in many countries for British voters to send them back in time for the count.

The Conservative government only half did the job in its 2022 Election Act. More work will be needed on electoral reform in the next Parliament so the serious shortcomings can be addressed by simply emulating policies already in practice elsewhere.

So, what can be done to improve engagement in the democratic process? There are four lessons.

First, establish overseas constituencies to give a proper voice to those abroad and incentivise them to participate. Second, consider introducing electronic ballot distribution to get ballot papers immediately to the overseas voter.

Third, allow voting in person at British embassies and consulates. And fourth, be more proactive in informing UK citizens living abroad about the opportunity to register as a voter, for example when they renew their passports.

The new Labour government has signalled its desire to bring in automatic voter registration. If this happens, it must apply to overseas citizens as well.

George Cunningham is chair of Liberal Democrats Abroad