Tories hire coordinator to get expat supporters to vote in general election

Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

The Conservative party has hired an overseas voter registration coordinator to mobilise thousands of supporters who live abroad to vote in target seats the party needs to win at the next general election to stay in office.

The job description from party headquarters, seen by the Guardian but no longer online, said the role would focus on boosting the turnout of Tory expat voters in crucial electoral contests.

It suggests the operation would coordinate UK-based proxy voters to increase Tory support in the so-called 80:20 contests. These are 80 seats, including many of those in the red wall, that the party needs to retain and 20 it wants to win.

The ad, from last August, said the job included “managing the coordination of a UK-based proxy voter campaign focused on ensuring maximum turnout of Conservative supporters in key 80:20 contests”.

An extra 2.2 million overseas voters who have lived abroad for more than 15 years regained the right to vote in UK elections last Tuesday, after a statutory instrument that was approved by parliament in late December almost unnoticed came into force.

The expansion means they will be able to register in the constituency of the last address at which they were resident if they are able to provide relevant documentation, or failing that, through local records or on the word of an eligible British resident.

They will then be able to vote by proxy, with one proxy voter able to vote on behalf of as many as four overseas voters.

The Electoral Commission raised concerns in response to an earlier consultation in 2016 that voters “might be tempted to choose a marginal seat they had once lived in rather than a safe seat even if it had not been the last address they lived at before leaving”.

Concerns were also raised about the difficulty of checking information and the potential for fraud. The Association of Electoral Administrators noted it would be challenging to enforce penalties for supplying false information or falsely attesting to applications from people overseas.

Tory HQ has already stepped up extra support for the 80 seats, including surveys of local voters, profiling the makeup of constituencies, and money to fund campaigning and create literature such as bespoke newsletters.

Last week’s change means British expats will now have a “vote for life”, delivering on a Tory manifesto promise, regardless of how long they have lived overseas and whether they have used any services or paid any taxes in the UK in recent years.

The government has said the change represents the biggest increase of the franchise since full female suffrage in 1928.

The holder of the new role also organises engagement between UK politicians and expat voters, working with sister party organisations such as the Republicans in the US and collaborating with the network of Conservatives Abroad supporters.

All Britons who lived abroad were eligible to vote until 2001, when Tony Blair’s Labour government introduced a new rule to end the right for those who had been overseas for more than 15 years. The Lib Dems stymied Tory efforts to expand the franchise again during the coalition years.

The change, which brings the UK into line with countries including the US, France, Italy and New Zealand, also means that overseas residents with more tenuous links to the UK can donate to British political parties.

A Tory spokesperson said: “As promised in the 2019 manifesto, the government is making it easier for British citizens living abroad to vote in parliamentary elections. Overseas voting is a mainstream democratic practice as seen in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United States.”

The change in voting rights is the legacy of the late Harry Shindler, who fought a battle of almost 20 years. He challenged the 15-year rule in the high court in 2016. When successive governments failed to deliver on their manifesto promises he brought the case to the European court of justice.

He remained sceptical but never gave up hope his campaign would finally bear fruit, and in March 2022 he declared his battle was “nearly over” when legislation was finally drafted. He lived to see it pass through parliament.