The Lords held their last full debates on the EU Referendum Bill on November 18. The House returned to the issue of whether all British citizens living in other EU countries should be able to vote in the referendum. Those who have been overseas for 15 years or less already have the right to vote in it, but action was needed to enfranchise British citizens abroad for more than that period. The Conservative election manifesto contained a clear commitment to remove the time limit for future parliamentary elections.
If that legislation had been set in motion justice would have been done, but it has yet to be introduced. In these circumstances it was the government’s duty to deal with the issue in the EU Referendum Bill so that British citizens abroad for more than 15 years were not deprived of a vote in this all-important referendum by an “accident of timing”, as Alistair Lexden has consistently argued and repeated once more on November 18.
However, the government opposed an amendment to the Bill that would have secured justice for all British people living in other EU countries in conformity with the Conservative manifesto commitment. So too did the Labour party in the Lords. The amendment was therefore overwhelmingly defeated.