Tory fury over Labour's 'sinister' plan to
'reopen Brexit'
Senior Conservatives criticised Sir Keir Starmer's
plan to hand the vote to millions of EU citizens if he wins the next general
election.
By SAM
LISTER - DAILY EXPRESS POLITICAL EDITOR, KATIE HARRIS
07:01, Mon,
May 15, 2023 | UPDATED: 08:29, Mon, May 15, 2023
Grant Shapps says that Starmer wants to 'reopen'
Brexit
Keir Starmer is trying to reopen Brexit to force
Britain back into the EU, furious leading Tories warned on Sunday night.
They
claimed the Labour leader was preparing a “sinister” plot in which millions of
EU citizens would be allowed to vote in general elections.
Sir Keir
was accused of “rigging” the system in order to hold another referendum on
membership of the Brussels bloc – including by allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to
vote, in the belief they will back Labour.
Tory Party
chairman Greg Hands condemned the scheme to give migrants who live permanently
in the UK and pay tax the chance to choose MPs.
Around 3.4 million EU nationals with 'settled status'
would be granted the right to vote
Mr Hands
said: “Labour’s plan to give foreign nationals the vote at Parliamentary
elections is laying the groundwork to drag the UK back into the EU by stealth.
Sir Keir spent years trying to block Brexit and overturn the largest democratic
vote in this country’s history...this is an attempt to rig the electorate to
re-join the EU.”
Mr Hands
continued: “The right to vote in Parliamentary elections and choose the next UK
Government is rightly restricted to British citizens and those with the closest
historical links to our country.
“No other
EU country allows EU citizens who are not their nationals to vote in
Parliamentary elections.
“This
Conservative Government is focused not on constitutional wrangling but
providing immediate relief to families by halving energy bills and delivering
on the people’s priorities: Halving inflation. Growing the economy. Reducing
debt. Cutting waiting lists. Stopping the boats.”
Around 3.4
million EU nationals with “settled status” would be granted the right to vote,
with a potential 2.6million more also likely to qualify.
Sir Keir
also wants to open up the ballot box to some 1.4 million 16 and 17-year-olds.
Former
Brexit Minister David Jones claimed that “flooding” Britain’s electoral
register with EU citizens would allow Sir Keir to “drag the UK back into the
EU”.
The Tory MP
accused Sir Keir’s Labour Party of trying to “gerrymander [manipulate] our
General Elections. No doubt, perhaps in coalition with the Lib Dems, they would
also introduce Proportional Representation – a sure-fire way of securing the
woolly, mushy, social democratic political system that is the ultimate ideal of
the leftist metropolitan elite.”
Fellow Tory
MP Craig Mackinlay said: “Expansion of the voting franchise is a serious
matter.
“Democracy
is not a plaything to be manipulated at will.
“There is
nothing to stop EU citizens becoming full UK citizens with the rights and
duties that entails, including the right to vote in national elections.”
He went on:
“If Labour plans to extend the franchise to any EU citizen with settled status
this would be seen as gerrymandering to achieve permanent electoral advantage
and if they could stage a re-run Brexit referendum – a long-established plan by
Sir Keir – the likely outcome could be skewed by the millions of additional
voters.
“EU member
countries do not allow voting by non-citizens for long-settled reasons.
“The more
we see Labour’s plans to destroy Britain, the more the electorate need to
understand the new dystopian Year Zero world that they propose.
“Brexit is
under threat; this was always Labour’s plan. Truly sinister.”
Energy
Secretary Grant Shapps accused Sir Keir of trying to “reopen” the Brexit
agreement. He added: “This is a settlement we made with EU countries to have
reciprocal arrangements.
“So British
citizens abroad are able to vote in, for example, the local elections in Spain
and the same here.
“What he
plans to do is reopen the Brexit settlement. So what else will he reopen? The
Windsor framework, the co-operation agreement with Europe? This again is Keir
Starmer doing whatever he thinks is practical to do at that moment in time.
“Or in his
personal advantage to do at that time.”
Polling
experts say that migrants and teenagers are more likely to be Labour
supporters.
Sir Keir’s
plans would increase the size of the electorate by around eight percent and
would be the biggest expansion of voters in almost a century.
Shadow
business secretary Jonathan Reynolds admitted that Labour will “look at”
extending the vote to EU nationals and to children.
He told
Sophy Ridge on Sky News: “There are arguments for expanding the franchise…It’s
something we will look at.”
Sir Keir
attempted to block Brexit at least 48 times, either by directly voting against,
by backing wrecking amendments or by voting against the secondary legislation
that was needed to deliver it.
Tory MP
Mark Jenkinson said on Sunday: “In his heart, Sir Keir knows he’ll drag us back
into the EU at his first opportunity.
“I didn’t
hear him fighting for UK nationals living in EU countries to be given the vote
– his default response, as with Corbyn, is always to side with others.”
Mark
Francois, chairman of the ERG group of Eurosceptic Tories, said: “I suspect the
real reason Starmer wants to give EU citizens a vote in UK General Elections is,
having been enfranchised, he hopes they might then vote for us to rejoin the EU
as well, in a Lab/Lib-inspired second referendum campaign. Keir Starmer remains
a Remainer and always will be – regardless of what he tells us in the run-up to
a General Election next year.”
To vote in
a UK Parliamentary election a person must be must be registered in the
constituency, be 18 years-old or older, be British or a qualifying Commonwealth
citizen or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, and not be a prisoner serving
a jail sentence.
The right
of some non-British residents, namely Commonwealth and Irish citizens, to vote
in UK elections is a result of historic ties with the UK. But EU citizens
cannot - just as Britons generally cannot vote in European country’s elections.
Irish
citizens can vote if they are resident in the UK, as can Commonwealth citizens
who are resident on our shores, have leave to remain in the UK or do not
require leave to remain.
For local
elections in England and Northern Ireland the rules are the same - except EU
citizens resident in the UK may also vote as long as they meet age and
residency requirements.
In
Scotland, the main differences for local and Scottish Parliament elections are
registered 16- and 17-year-olds can vote; all legally resident foreign
nationals can also register to vote (not just EU nationals) and convicts
serving 12 mnths or less can vote.
In Wales
rules there have also been changed for Senedd Cymru and local elections, with
again 16-17 year-olds able to vote and all resident foreign nationals - however
convicted prisoners are still banned from voting.
These
changes do not cover police and crime commissioner elections in Wales as these
elections are a reserved matter for the UK Parliament.
Voting age
will remain at 18 for PCC elections in Wales and only registered British,
qualifying Commonwealth and Irish citizens will be able to vote
Brexit is
not to blame for the post-pandemic downturn in exports, analysis of official
trade figures shows, writes Sam Lister.
Remainers
have claimed that the UK’s slower recovery than other leading nations is down
to its departure from the European Union.
But a study
by the Centre for Brexit Policy found the weak economic position is down to
global factors, a heavy reliance on some sectors for overseas sales and
cutbacks in North Sea oil and gas production.
The report
found at least 80 percent of the shortfall in exports is down to factors other
than Brexit.
Car and
aerospace exports were hit by the pandemic, microchip shortages and the
temporary collapse of air passenger travel.
The report
said that made Britain more vulnerable to global events than other G7 nations.
Trade
analyst Phil Radford said: “The UK’s particular mix of exports explains why UK
trade was bound to underperform G7 countries in 2021 and 2022.
“The motor
vehicle and aerospace sectors are easily our biggest goods-export industries in
global terms. In 2019, for example, they delivered more than 20 percent of all
UK goods exports.”
A fall in
investment in the North Sea meant UK trade did not benefit from the energy
crisis, while offshoring in the pharmaceutical industry meant the country also
failed to gain from the spike in demand for vaccines.
The report
found Brexit had a “trivial” effect on UK-EU trade compared to other factors.
It said the
impact of problems in pharmaceuticals, the motor industry and energy combined
to have a far bigger impact on exports than leaving the trade bloc.
Mr Radford
said: “The UK–EU deficits in these three sectors are the result of policy
choices by UK governments, and not shifts in global competitive advantage.
“Their
impact on UK trade is multiple times worse than the impacts of Brexit on UK’s
food, agriculture, jewellery and other sectors. And yet the challenges faced by
the UK’s auto and pharma sectors in particular receive next-to-zero attention
from British trade commentators.”
The Prime
Minister said that while he was “working night and day” for the country,
“Labour wouldn’t even work weekends for the British public”.
Mr Sunak
added the government is “working very hard to reform the system so that we can
ensure that work always pays”.
Labour
wants to copy legislation introduced in France that gives employees the “right
to switch off.”
It is part
of a “new deal for working people” that would include more flexible hours the
party is planning to introduce.
Labour
deputy leader Angela Rayner said the “constant emails and calls outside of work
should not be the norm” because they are “harming the work-life balance for
many.”
Advertising
tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell told the Mail on Sunday: “I find it unbelievable. I
guess this will result in another blow to British productivity. I guess they
believe this appeals to Gen Z voters [those under 30], but I’m not sure it will
appeal to the whole electorate. In a service business, 24/7 availability for
clients is essential. Opportunities and problems in businesses such as ours
don’t crop up conveniently during office hours.”
John
Caudwell, founder of Phones 4U, added: “Not only is it frightening but with all
the challenges that we’ve got in life, with wars and the cost-ofliving crisis,
it’s just so ridiculous. I can’t believe it. I don’t even know how it would
work.
“It is
completely beyond common sense to me. It’s bizarre in the extreme. It’s woke
gone mad and I’m completely puzzled by it. If Labour have got nothing better to
do than dream up legislation like that which is utterly destructive to society,
to me that would make them utterly unelectable.”
David Jones
Anyone
toying with the notion of voting Labour at the next general election should be
deeply alarmed that Keir Starmer is seriously considering giving the vote to
almost six million EU nationals who have been granted, or have applied for,
settled UK status.
The
proposal is completely without constitutional merit.
EU citizens
were never allowed to vote in British general elections during the whole time
we were a member state. It is therefore impossible to see any good reason why
they should be allowed to do so now that we have left. What’s more, the
European Court of Justice decided last year that British citizens no longer
have the right to vote in EU municipal elections.
It said it
was “an automatic consequence of the sole sovereign decision taken by the
United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union”. One might have thought
even Keir Starmer would recognise what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the
gander and rule out EU citizens voting in UK elections.
But
Starmer, it should be remembered, is a dyed-in-the-wool Europhile. He was
pressing for a second referendum before we completed our EU departure, and he
has other priorities.
Nobody
seriously doubts that given half a chance, he would drag the UK back into the
EU.
Flooding
the electoral register with EU citizens who, let’s face it, would be far more
likely than native Brits to support rejoining, would be an ideal way to help
achieve that aim. And what further constitutional chicanery would Labour get up
to if elected?
They
already want to lower the voting age to 16. Perhaps in coalition with the Lib
Dems, they would also introduce proportional representation – the ultimate
ideal of the Leftist metropolitan elite.
So it’s no
bad thing Starmer’s plan to gerrymander our general elections has been rumbled.
Our
democracy is a precious thing: far too valuable to be left to a Labour Party
desperate for power at any price.
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