More Brits living in the Canary Islands can now vote in UK elections

British citizens living abroad are now eligible to register to vote in UK general elections, regardless of how long they’ve been living outside the UK, after a new law, part of the UK Government’s Election Act passed in 2022, has removed the previous 15-year time limit.

Supporting the awareness campaign of the UK’s Electoral Commission, the British Embassy in Madrid is calling on British expat residents living in Spain to check if they are eligible, as the Commission is the independent and impartial organisation that oversees elections in the UK.  In 2019, just over 230,000 people were registered as overseas voters at the general election. 

Those who have previously lived in or been registered to vote in the UK can register online now at www.gov.uk/registertovote and will need to confirm their personal information every three years. Anyone on a UK electoral register is also considered a permissible donor to UK political parties and campaigners.

The British Ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliott said: “This law means that more British citizens living in Spain will now be eligible to vote in UK Parliamentary elections, which is good news. We’re asking the British community here to help us spread the word because it’s important that eligible people are made aware of the changes so that they can register and cast a ballot when the time comes.”

It only takes five minutes to register and voting can be done by post or by proxy, applicants will need to provide details of the address and time they were last registered or resident as local authorities must be able to verify an applicant’s identity and past connection to the area. 

More information is available on the Electoral Commission’s website, and voters living overseas can find contact details for the relevant local council by entering the postcode of the last place they lived in the UK, using the Commission’s postcode lookup tool.