Tories look to a million Brits in Australia to save them from oblivion

London: Britain’s Conservative Party has turned to more than a million expats living in Australia in a bid to hold on to marginal seats in next month’s general election, amid predictions it could be wiped from the map.

British citizens living overseas were recently granted lifetime voting rights after a law stopping expats from voting after 15 years out of the country was abolished.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party is on track for an electoral hammering.Credit: Getty

The change could add 3.5 million people to the register, in what would be the biggest increase to the electorate since full female suffrage came into effect in 1928.

The Tories, who have been in power since 2010, are fighting to prevent Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer winning a “supermajority” even bigger than Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.

Trailing by an average of 20 percentage points in the opinion polls, the Tories are now attempting to persuade right-leaning voters not to desert them for Nigel Farage’s Reform party, while issuing warnings over the prospect of Starmer enjoying “unchecked” power.

The party is also courting overseas voters with parents living in Britain by attacking Labour’s tax plans, claiming it is preparing a raid on inheritance tax to pay for its spending commitments.

Australia is home to the biggest population of British expats. The most recent census reported 277,960 living in NSW, 247,910 in Western Australia, 232,920 in Queensland and 213,940 in Victoria.

Heather Harper, the chairwoman of Conservatives Abroad, said the law change meant that long-standing Tory voters, some of whom feel forgotten by British politics, could voice their opinions at the ballot box.

“For Conservatives, this huge swath of voters, outside of day-to-day constituency activities, could prove the difference between winning and losing in our key marginal battlegrounds,” she said.

“In marginal seats, all our campaigning, hard work and efforts to return a Conservative government should have the support of those life-long overseas voters who agree with our views of a global Britain.”

As a sweetener, Foreign Secretary David Cameron last week said the Conservatives would appoint a minister for British citizens overseas to represent their rights across government, should they win on July 4.

More than 230,000 overseas voters were registered to vote in the last election in December 2019 when Boris Johnson was swept to power on the back of promises he would “get Brexit done”. Record numbers were expected to take part this year after the end of the 15-year rule.

The Electoral Commission is now urging Brits overseas to register by the midnight cut-off on June 18 (10am AEST on Wednesday). They must have previously been resident in Britain to vote.

“We know that there are eligible voters all around the world, so we are calling on anyone with friends and family abroad to help spread the word, and let them know to register before the deadline,” the commission’s Craig Westwood said.

Dave Cummings, a Labour International member who has lived in Melbourne for 18 years, said he was excited about getting his vote back.

He said that with elderly parents living in the UK, he would relish the ability to help protect Britain’s National Health Service.

“My mum was rushed to hospital recently with a heart issue,” he said. “She was on a trolley – not even a bed – for something like 18 hours.

“Lot of people will still have family at home, I guess, so it’s important to get the message out to people who’ve been here 15 years that it doesn’t matter. You don’t need to be passive for these Tories, you can do something about them.”

Voting rights in the UK are also extended to about 87,000 Australians living there. As a hangover from the days of empire, when so-called British subjects were included in the parliamentary franchise, Commonwealth and Irish citizens resident in the UK without British nationality retain the right to vote in elections.

Estimates based on the last census put the number of Commonwealth citizens eligible to vote at more than 1 million.

Levels of voter registration – in a country where it is not compulsory to vote – vary enormously by demographic characteristics across the UK. One of the largest differences is by age group. Nearly all over-65s are registered, but only 60 per cent of 18- and 19-year-olds. Those who were 16 or 17 when the latest research was carried out, but who may now be 18, are a particular cause for concern.

Registration is also lower among black citizens, private renters and lower socioeconomic groups.

Brits in Australia can register online at www.gov.uk/registertovote, and applications to vote by post or proxy in Britain can now also be done online. Applications close on Wednesday at 10am (AEST).

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