The Daily Express, May 15, David Jones MP
Anyone toying with the notion of voting Labour at the next general election should be deeply alarmed that Keir Starmer is seriously considering giving the vote to almost six million EU nationals who have been granted, or have applied for, settled UK status.
The proposal is completely without constitutional merit.
EU citizens were never allowed to vote in British general elections during the whole time we were a member state. It is therefore impossible to see any good reason why they should be allowed to do so now that we have left. What’s more, the European Court of Justice decided last year that British citizens no longer have the right to vote in EU municipal elections.
It said it was “an automatic consequence of the sole sovereign decision taken by the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union”. One might have thought even Keir Starmer would recognise what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and rule out EU citizens voting in UK elections.
But Starmer, it should be remembered, is a dyed-in-the-wool Europhile. He was pressing for a second referendum before we completed our EU departure, and he has other priorities.
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