By ALYX BARKER

ROME -- MPs and other leading figures this week urged expatriates to step up their efforts in the campaign to ensure their right to vote is secured for life. It was thought that the televised discussion of the Select Committee for Political and Constitutional Reform on the Electoral Register Bill would offer an opportunity for progress. Campaigners were disappointed however, when the issue was given less than 2 minutes of the discussion.

 Conservative MP Roger Gale issued a statement earlier this week advising British expatriates to lobby their MPs to support new legislation which could be enacted to secure expats’ right to vote in national elections beyond the current 15 year cut off.

 Though the European ex-pat community is generally able to vote in local and EU elections, those Britons who have been resident outside the UK for more than 15 years are denied the right to vote in a national election. Most other European Union member states, including France, Germany and Italy, grant expatriates voting rights for life.

 The campaign for expats’ right to vote entered the spotlight when Harry Shindler initiated proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights in 2009, challenging the 15 year rule in the Representation of the People Act.

 Mr Shindler, born in 1921, is a World War II veteran and leading member of the Italy Star association who now lives in Porto D’Ascoli, Italy. He was denied the right to vote in the 2010 general election.

 Earlier this year, a report was published by the Parliament and Constitution Centre on the issue, which noted that two Parliamentary Questions had asked the Coalition Government to revise the 15 year rule.

 In that report, The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord McNally) was cited as replying: “the Government are aware that representations have been made on behalf of those working in some international organisations abroad that they should continue to be able to vote after a period of 15 years continuous residence overseas. The Government have not yet considered the way forward on this issue.”

 Now, Gale has said that the Electoral Registration Bill, due to be introduced in January, “provides a realistic vehicle for a change if the Government is minded to extend voting rights.”

  He urged expatriates to seek support for a change in the legislation through representations to the Cabinet Office.

  He also said that it was the LibDems who needed persuading: “I remain convinced that [Conservative] Mark Harper, as the junior Cabinet Office Minister, genuinely wants to help but this, clearly, will be a Coalition Cabinet decision and it is therefore important that Liberal Democrat as well as Tory MPs understand the sense of injustice that is felt throughout an ex-pat community that has worked for, supported, paid taxes in and sometimes fought for the United Kingdom.”

 Christopher Chantrey, Chairman of British Community Committee of France and of Conservatives Abroad also said that now was the time to lobby, saying "If as many UK expatriates as possible in their own capacity email the Cabinet Office this week, it could help win over the waverers in Government and perhaps even help to get the cut off period completely abolished, as has recently happened in Germany."

 The Parliamentary Select Committee for Political and Constitutional Reform progress was televised on the BBC Parliament Channel at 10.00 a.m. UK Time (11.00 a.m. Continental time) Thurday Oct. 13. The meeting on Thursday was a disappointment to expatriates however, as it gave only 1miunte 48 seconds to any comment on the issue of overseas voters. Mark Harper, Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, said that the Government were considering a change in the time allowed for expatriates to vote, but that no decision has been made.

Brian Cave, leading campaigner for Expats' voting rights said: "It almost makes one's blood pressure burst one's eardrums

"Our group of the promoters of Votes-For-Expat-Brits will consider the how we move forward from this. We await decisions on the court cases of James Preston, in the High Court, and Harry Shindler in the European Court of Human Rights, for the rights of British expatriates. These decisions could well determine the course of history."

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