Lords calls to extend expat voting rights As the House of Lords debated the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, Lord Lexden took up the cause of expats and found strong support for an amendment from fellow Conservative peers, Lord Norton of Louth and Lord Flight, who has lived overseas. "My principal purpose is to draw attention to a grave injustice that afflicts large numbers of our fellow countrymen and women living overseas and is keenly felt by many of them," Lord Lexden said. He pointed out that according to the Institute for Public Policy Research, 20 per cent of expats leave the country for life in retirement and many of those expect to spend more than 15 years overseas. In his reply to Lord Lexden, the minister, Lord Gardiner of Kimble, said that the 15-year limit "remains under consideration within government." Lord Lexden said: "I listened with particular care to the minister's speech and noted one or two encouraging points. Overall, however, I listened with some disappointment. Currently, expats who live abroad are removed of their vote after 15 years spent overseas but campaigners claim this is discriminatory. Elsewhere in the EU, 22 out of 27 countries allow their expatriate citizens the right to vote without any restriction on the period of residence outside the home country. Brian Cave, a France-based expat who has campaigned for the right to vote for many years, said that this is a crucial time for the campaign and, after David Cameron's speech on Europe this week, "the banner must fly more vigorously." "Over one million British citizens who live in Europe - of which 450,000 are pensioners - and should surely have the chance to voice their views," he said. In 2011, expat and Second World War veteran Harry Shindler took the matter to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in an unsuccessful attempt to get the 15-year voting rule scrapped.