Our #GetOutTheVote campaign gains traction

MPs urged to remind EU citizens to vote in local elections

Ruvi Ziegler, Else Kvist and Kate Willoughby at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, March 2024

Our campaign team led by Else Kvist travelled to York last weekend to lobby MPs at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference about our campaign to Get Out the EU Citizens Vote #GOTV for the local elections in England on 2 May.

Many MPs and activists still remember the vote denied scandal of 2019 when over 1 million EU citizens were denied a vote in the European elections because the government had failed to make adequate provision for them to do so.

Today, many EU citizens do not realise they still have the right to vote in local elections. And most are not aware the UK government is introducing a two tier system (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) that will systematically exclude some of them from voting if there is no bi-lateral agreement in place with their country of origin.

Help us to contact all MPs in England to urge them to use their profile in local communities to remind all EU citizens to vote in the local elections.

There is a real danger that without this reminder, many will not participate in the local elections on 2 May.

This will make it even easier for the government to strip the right to vote from EU citizens who came to the UK after 31 December 2020 unless their country of origin has a bi-lateral agreement on voting rights in place with the UK.

Your support will help us write to all English MPs and also to Electoral Registration Officers urging them to do what they can to remind EU citizens to register for the local elections in England on 2 May and to vote.

Ruvi Ziegler, Chair of New Europeans UK, also spoke at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Citizens’ Rights on Tuesday about our campaign to secure overseas constituencies so that Britons abroad can be represented at the General Election later this year (more on this in the next update).

We are campaigning to make sure that EU citizens in the UK and Britons abroad feel represented despite the fact that the UK is no longer in the EU.

We believe each of us has a voice that should be heard at the ballot box and that our democracy will be stronger and more inclusive if these votes are counted.

Please chip in what you can to support our campaign.