Millions of People are Unable to Vote in the UK, as Report Reveals Numbers of Foreign Citizens Disenfranchised by Seat

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Over four million residents of voting age in the UK are unable to vote due to a messy patchwork of rules about which non-Brits can vote in our elections.
A new research report commissioned by the campaign group Migrant Democracy Project exposes the extent to which migrant residents remain disenfranchised - unable to vote - in the UK.
The results are "astounding" according to the non-profit Migrant Democracy Project. The analysis found that 4.4 million residents remain ineligible to vote in parliamentary elections for MPs across the UK.
Even for local elections, where rules are less strict, 1.2 million residents of voting age remain ineligible to vote in local elections in England and Northern Ireland due to rules on which countries' citizens can vote here. The rules apply regardless of how long they have lived and paid taxes in the UK.
London appears most affected by high numbers of non-voting residents, particularly parts of Westminster, as well as Tottenham (North), West Ham, Poplar and Limehouse (East), and Brent (West) . The capital would likely gain more seats in Parliament, if MP boundaries were tweaked to represent the hundreds of thousands of currently unrepresented potential voters.
Areas like Peterborough, Cambridge, Luton, Leicester, and parts of Birmingham would also likely gain representation if the rules were changed to expand the franchise.
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In Scotland and Wales, 88,000 residents have gained the right to vote in recent years through reforms pursued by their devolved governments, though relatively large numbers remain unable to vote in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The report - conducted by Professor Toby James and Jamie Underwood from the University of East Anglia - is the first of its kind to pinpoint the magnitude of this disenfranchisement, according to the study's backers.
'What if Everyone Could Vote?' reveals "gross disparities" between communities, with the top ten constituencies having more than 20,000 disenfranchised voters on average while 26 others have fewer than 1,000 including Bishop Auckland, Rother Valley, Redcar, and Hexham.
Irish and qualifying Commonwealth citizens of voting age can already cast their ballots in all elections in the UK. The rules on Commonwealth citizens stem from Britain's colonial history, put into law through the British Nationality Act 1948 and Representation of the People Act 1949.
However, EU citizens (except Irish people) or those of non-Commonwealth countries cannot vote for Members of Parliament, no matter how long they've lived here.
That is despite the last Government changing the rules so that Brits living outside the UK for over 15 years are still able to vote and donate to political parties here, from abroad.
A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson told Byline Times: "This government will deliver important election reforms to strengthen our democracy, including extending voting rights to 16-year-olds. We have no plans to revise the franchise for foreign nationals."
Meanwhile, Byline Times understands that the policy of extending the vote to 16 and 17 year olds will be in place "in good time" ahead of the next general election.
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