European Union Referendum Bill

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Wednesday 18th November 2015 Lords Chamber

This second change, the postponement until 1 January 2017, has the added advantage of being consistent with the spirit of the proposal of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, in 2008. He suggested that the right of Commonwealth citizens to vote in general elections should be phased out. Clearly, we cannot phase out a vote for the referendum but this timing would give the opportunity to Commonwealth citizens who have not yet become British citizens to do so, if they so decided. As I mentioned in Committee, the noble and learned Lord kindly authorised me to say that he supported these amendments. These amendments would not affect Gibraltar, as my Amendment 5 makes clear, but they have two specific advantages. One is that they would remove the anomaly whereby Malta and Cyprus would be able to vote, whereas other EU nationals would not. Secondly, they would remove the absurdity whereby Commonwealth citizens could vote in this referendum within weeks of arrival.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

Could the noble Lord explain the position of citizens of the Falkland Islands and other dependent territories?

[Lord Green of Deddington]

They would have to be resident in the UK, of course, in which case they would have the right to vote. That is buried in the reference to the British Nationality Act.

Finally, on the case for change, the effect of these amendments would be to establish a clear principle for the franchise, namely that only British and Irish citizens who have become British citizens would continue to be able to vote in the referendum, as would 340,000 Irish citizens. What is clear, as I mentioned in Committee—where I think there was no disagreement about it—is that whatever the result of this referendum, there will be deep unhappiness on the part of those who consider that they have lost it. A period of reconciliation will be needed so it is absolutely vital that the arrangements for the referendum, especially the franchise, should be above reproach, as the Minister himself made clear.

This matter seems to have slipped through the cracks in the other place. Very few Members of Parliament will have realised that the adoption of the franchise for the general election would include something like a million potential voters who are not British citizens, nearly all of them from countries that do not allow our citizens to vote in their general elections, let alone in their referenda—this when our referendum is so critical for our future. Indeed, the matter was barely mentioned, let alone discussed.

It is surely the duty of this House as a revising Chamber to adopt these amendments and invite the other place to give this important question the consideration that it deserves but has not yet received.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

I am sorry to interrupt again, but the noble Lord needs to make clear which countries he is referring to. Could he spell out the number from each country and the countries in which we do not have a reciprocal right? Unless we have that information from him, we may not understand why he is moving the amendment.

[Lord Green of Deddington]

Yes. The number is of the order of a million—it is actually 1.2 million—who are Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK but are not British citizens. Their nationalities vary—I do not think there is any information on which nationalities they are—but they are the ones who have not become British citizens.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

The noble Lord has a lot of experience in these matters. Surely he could give us an indication of the number, in rough terms, from each country—from India, from Pakistan, from Australia and from Canada. It would be helpful if he could.

[Lord Green of Deddington]

That would be possible—you can take that information from the Labour Force Survey—but it is not relevant to the purpose of the amendment. The purpose of the amendment is that only British citizens shall be entitled to vote in a British referendum. It does not matter to me what their citizenship happens to be, nor does that affect the principle.