EU Parliament Elections: Denial of Votes Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Cabinet Office
Luke Pollard
Main Page: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)Department Debates - View all Luke Pollard's debates with the Cabinet Office
(4 years, 10 months ago)
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Kevin Foster
As I touched on earlier, we would expect the Electoral Commission’s review to look at issues with local councils where the form was returned in compliance with the law and then not complied with. The Government would not have dealt with that directly. Election turnout rose compared with previous similar elections, and we hope that this election will not take place again following the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Luke Pollard (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Lab/Co-op)
“This feels like one big scam”—that is what one citizen I represent told me about his experience of this process. I say to my fellow Devon MP that I think he has got this one wrong. When the Electoral Commission publishes its report, will he now commit to publishing it and bringing it back to this House with a statement, so that he can say sorry, from the Dispatch Box, to all the EU citizens who have been denied a vote, and set out how it will be corrected in future?
Kevin Foster
I always respect the passion of the hon. Gentleman, my friend from Devon, when it comes to raising issues and campaigning on behalf of his constituents. We will of course see what the Electoral Commission report brings back. It will be a public report, so it will be published. We will certainly then consider what next steps would need to be taken if we were ever to have European parliamentary elections again, although, as the hon. Gentleman will know, my view is that we should implement the referendum result so that we will not be an EU member the next time they take place.