Brits living abroad should have a dedicated 'minister for expats' to stop them being treated like "second class citizens", campaigners have said.
The idea comes from Gina Miller, who led the successful legal action against Boris Johnson ’s Brexit prorogation in 2019 and now leads the True and Fair party.
Launching the overseas arm of the party today, she argued a specific minister would handle issues faced by the 6m British people who live abroad.
And she slammed ministers for failing to set out a timetable for the government's "votes for life" policy.
The plan is set to remove the 15 year limit on expats voting in UK elections.
But while MPs voted the plan through in April, they have yet to introduce the additional law that allows long-term overseas citizens to continue voting.
Ms Miller fears this will mean many won’t be able to register to vote before the next election.
Meanwhile, qualifying Commonwealth citizens of British Crown dependencies and overseas territories - as well as citizens of Cyprus and Malta - can register to vote in all UK-held elections.
Even citizens of Fiji and Zimbabwe retain their voting rights, despite those countries being suspended from the Commonwealth.
Ms Miller said: "There is no starker deficit than the one faced by our six million overseas citizens.
“They need to be treated with the same fairness and equity that citizens of 93 other countries enjoy – the right to vote when living abroad.
“As British passport holders they also deserve a minister and support network to represent their interests."
Ms Miller added: “It is appalling that our citizens have no idea when they will be allowed to vote in UK elections. The Government should have set out a clear and detailed timetable, but ministers simply aren’t interested in our own people when they have left these shores.”
