‘Million
migrants
able to vote
but are not
UK citizens’

Commonwealth citizens - from 54 independent sovereign states, including Australia, Canada and India – can register on the electoral roll upon arrival in the UK as long as they have an address.

Campaigner Migration Watch UK estimates that by the next general election in 2015 there will be more than one million Commonwealth citizens with the right to vote. And, except for a few Caribbean states, British citizens do not have similar rights in Commonwealth countries.

Migration Watch UK chair Sir Andrew Green said: “One example is that a student visitor from a Commonwealth country planning to study for six months would be allowed to enrol on the electoral register and vote in a parliamentary election if one was held during the duration of his or her stay.

“This is clearly absurd. The issue is one of basic fairness. If people want to participate in deciding the future of our country they should at least become citizens.”

The 2011 census data shows that there are 960,000 Commonwealth citizens who do not have British citizenship living in England and Wales with the right to vote.

The previous government commissioned a review in 2007 of British citizenship laws by Lord Goldsmith, the then Attorney General, but did not act on his recommendation that the government makes a “clear connection between citizenship and the right to vote”.

Lord Goldsmith concluded: “Ultimately, it is right in principle not to give the right to vote to citizens of other countries living in the UK until they become British citizens.”