United Kingdom (Brussels Morning Newspaper), Get out and vote…. that is the message of a new campaign which aims to defend EU citizens’ voting rights.
Actor, playwright, and campaigner Kate Willoughby, launched the campaign to get out the EU Citizens’ vote.
Willoughby, who played the role of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison at the launch, wants to remind all EU citizens in the UK they still have the right to vote in the Greater London Authority elections on May 2, as well as in local and mayoral elections in England.
From June, only EU citizens who arrived in the UK before 1 January 2021 or whose country of origin has a bilateral voting rights agreement with the UK will be able to do so.
Campaigners say this will create a “two-tier” system for EU citizens’ voting rights and local authorities will be faced with the task of removing “en masse” large numbers of EU citizens from the electoral roll.
The campaign is headed by New Europeans which, in 2014 and 2019 highlighted how over 1 million EU citizens were denied their vote in the European elections due to the alleged failure of the UK government to take adequate steps to ensure full participation.
Else Kvist, communications officer of New Europeans UK, told this site: “Such a deliberate and systemic act of voter disenfranchisement as is now being planned (and has already been legislated for) has never been tried before.”
The new measures, she said, will be “complicated, time-consuming and expensive” and will “fly in the face of attempts to build a more inclusive democracy in the UK. Willoughby said she sees a parallel between the right for women to vote at the start of the last century and the voting rights of EU Citizens in the UK today.
Speaking at the launch of the campaign in Westminster, she said, “Our votes are our voices at the ballot box – they are a precious heartbeat that enables our democracy to be fully representative.”
“It’s time for EU citizens to stand up and make their voices heard, just as we suffragettes did over 100 years ago.”
New Europeans UK says it will also be campaigning for all Britons abroad to vote in the UK’s General Election, expected later this year, following the abolition of the 15-year rule (which meant UK citizens could not vote after 15 years of residency abroad).
The group is looking for support in its efforts to “defend the voting rights of all EU citizens in the UK by maximizing their participation in the local and GLA elections that take place on 2 May.”
She added, “Experience has shown that the Government will forget to tell EU citizens that they have the right to vote, even though they must do so.
With support, we will produce information advising EU Citizens of their right to vote; put this information in the hands of EU citizens by distributing the information both in the form of printed material and online, and engage with community groups, public bodies, and media across England to ask them to promote registration and participation by EU citizens.
“We will also contact all those responsible for elections in government to make sure they are proactively informing EU citizens of their right to register and vote.
“We will liaise with the Electoral Commission to prevent a repeat of the scandals of 2014 and 2019 when over 1m EU citizens were denied a vote.”
government electionsShe adds, “We must act now so that we can do all this in good time for the Greater London Authority Elections and local and elections taking place in England on 2 May.
“Doing the best we can to maximize voter registration and participation in elections by EU Citizens on 2 May is the best way to defend the long-term right to vote of all EU citizens, now undermined by new legislation.”
