Non-UK citizens 'should not vote'

Migration Watch UK claims more than half a million votes in the next election could be cast by Commonwealth nationals without British citizenship
5 September 2013

Six in 10 people think that Commonwealth immigrants who have not qualified for British citizenship should be stripped of the right to vote in UK elections, new figures suggest.

Last week, campaign group Migration Watch UK warned that by the next general election in 2015 there could be more than one million such voters.

And the organisation revealed the results of a YouGov poll that suggested 60% of adults think that nationals from the 54 Commonwealth countries who do not have UK citizenship should be banned from voting here.

Currently citizens from those states, which include Australia, Canada and India, can register on the electoral roll upon arrival in the UK as long as they have an address.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said "Public opinion is rightly very strong on this. The situation is both very unfair and undermines the value of citizenship. The Government's response so far has been pathetic.

"When Parliament has considered it in the past MPs had no idea of the scale that this issue had reached. Now that the scale has become known, this hangover from the Empire must be tackled and soon."

The poll of 1,919 adults, which was carried out online on August 29 and 30, revealed that 30% were in favour of the right to vote and 9% did not know. The percentages have been rounded.

Last week, Migration Watch UK claimed that more than half a million votes in the next election could be cast by Commonwealth nationals without British citizenship.

According to 2011 census data there are 960,000 Commonwealth citizens who do not have British citizenship living in England and Wales but who have the right to vote.

This total includes only those who, in 2011, were over the age of 15 and who therefore would be eligible to vote in 2015, the campaigners said. If the turnout is close to the national average, this could amount to more than half a million votes, the group claimed.

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