Will expat voters really help the Tories at the next election?

With opinion polls predicting an oncoming electoral shellacking for the Conservatives, it is unsurprising that Rishi Sunak is hoping to find extra voters wherever he can. CCHQ’s latest bet is in the two million or so Britons living overseas who have just had their lifetime voting rights restored.

On 16 January, rules came into operation allowing all British citizens living abroad to register to vote in general elections. Labour introduced a 15-year limit on voting rights for expats in 2001. Repealing that limit has been a long-standing Tory manifesto commitment. Doing so with last year’s Elections Act has more than doubled the number of eligible overseas voters from 1.4 million to 3.5 million.

This represents the biggest expansion of the franchise since the rights of male and female voters were equalised in 1928. Michael Gove was keen to couch the decision in highly principled terms, suggesting the decision has ‘once again shown’ that the Conservatives are ‘the party of democracy’.