Joe Duggan (Reporter)
THOUSANDS of expats will win the right to vote in UK elections after Theresa May vowed to change the law.
The prime minister pledged to extend voting rights to expats who have lived abroad for more than 15 years after a World War Two veteran lobbied parliament.
Harry Shindler, 95, received a letter from Downing Street assuring him all Brits living outside the UK will be able to vote in elections by 2020, as ‘set out in a government manifesto in 2015’.
Shindler has lived in Italy for 34 years after fighting in the battle of Anzio and Rome’s liberation, but has mixed feelings about the decision.
“Planning for the D-Day invasion took less time than the preparation of this bill,” he said.
“We’re telling other people how to become a democracy, but we’re not a proper democracy ourselves.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. Cameron said it was one of the first things he was going to do, he’s gone and civil servants said it was impossible to change the rules
If civil servents cannot change the law on this, how can they untangle 40 years of EU law so easily in just two years?
They can’t Fred, that’s the simple answer. It might help if they had political leaders to guide them instead they have May, Johnson, Fox and Davies. My prediction they will make a complete dogs dinner of it just like Cameron did with the referendum.