Islanders must sign up quickly to vote in UK election

But they will need to ensure they register quickly, with just six weeks until the General Election.

Changes to UK laws in January removed a '15 year rule' that meant people were not able to vote in UK elections more than 15 years after they left the country.

This allows British citizens worldwide to register to vote online, regardless of how long they have been overseas.

Channel Islands Co-ordinator for Conservatives Abroad, Robert McDowall, said that meant up to 70,000 Channel Islanders could be eligible to vote.

‘I would encourage eligible Channel Islanders to vote as they are entitled to do so as UK citizens, it is an element of a citizens’ rights,’ he said. ‘It follows the practice of countries like the USA, France and Switzerland, who enable their citizens overseas to vote in their national elections.’

Mr McDowall said he was registered to vote himself and knew a number of people who have been in the Channel Islands for more than 15 years who had registered to vote in UK General Elections.

‘Their experiences of the process has been varied,’ he said.

‘Depending on the efficiency of the electoral returning officer’s unit in their constituency.’

At the last election in 2019, more than 200,000 people were registered as overseas voters out of an estimated 1.2m who were eligible at the time.

The government has estimated that the number of people able to register after the rule change will increase to approximately 3.3m.

Mr McDowall said the impact of the ‘expat’ votes depended on their distribution across UK constituencies.

‘The majority of expats, including those already registered, are registered in constituencies in London and the south of England,’ he said.

‘Some hypotheses were conducted on the 2019 General Election results.

'On the basis that 10% of the eligible expats had voted, between 300,000 to 350,000 people, it would have resulted in an additional 12 seats for the Conservative Party.’

Labour currently has a lead of about 22% over the Conservatives in the latest opinion polls and Chief Minister Lyndon Trott said Guernsey was prepared for a change of UK government if it came to pass.

‘We have a dossier ready to give the new members of the House of Commons mentioning the significant contribution the financial services industry makes to the prosperity of the UK,’ he said.

‘There’s also a fair amount of data that suggests that our economy does well under a Labour government.’

He added that he had met Sir Keir Starmer, during his work as a member of the UK Leadership Council.

‘I confess to having enjoyed his company,’ he said.

‘We talked about a number of different things, including Guernsey’s place the world.’

But he did not want to make any predictions about the outcome of the UK General Election.

‘Certainly the pollsters have suggested a Labour majority,’ he said.

‘Whether that transpires we will discover during the early hours of 5 July.’

REGISTERING TO VOTE

The Electoral Commission has confirmed a deadline to register to vote in the July General Election of 11.59pm on 18 June.

The online registration process takes about five minutes to complete and requires passport and National Insurance number details, with voting linked to the last UK address the people were either registered to vote at or lived at.

Voters can then apply for a postal vote or proxy

vote and should receive a ballot paper by post around three weeks before polling day.

Eligible islanders can find out more at www.registertovote.service.gov.uk.