United Kingdom: Council withdraws EU referendum leaflet over ‘unfair’ remain graphic | The Guardian

An EU referendum voting guidance leaflet has been withdrawn after complaints it could influence voters’ decisions on 23 June. Graphic instructions on how to vote included in material sent out with postal votes in Bristol showed a pen hovering over the remain box. It was attacked as unfair by Brexit campaigners – who said similar pictures had been reported in other parts of the country as ballot papers begin to arrive. The Electoral Commission said while the graphic was unlikely to sway voters, it “clearly shouldn’t have been used” in that form. A spokeswoman said the commission had acted to ensure the leaflet was replaced by Bristol city council and was investigating whether the issue was more widespread.

United Kingdom: British emigrants lose supreme court EU referendum vote bid | The Guardian

Britons who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will not be allowed to vote in the EU referendum, the supreme court has ruled. The highest court in the country upheld earlier rulings of the high court and court of appeal against Harry Shindler and Jacquelyn MacLennan, who were challenging the law. The ruling confirms the decision that the UK’s voting regulations do not unlawfully interfere with the right of freedom of movement within the European Union and that the government is entitled to set an arbitrary time limit on residence. Delivering the ruling, Lady Hale, deputy president of the supreme court, said: “The question is not whether this particular voting exclusion is justifiable as a proportionate means of pursuing a legitimate aim. The question is whether EU law applies.”

United Kingdom: EU referendum: The non-Britons planning to vote | BBC

It might seem peculiar that a young Australian here in Britain on a two-year working holiday is allowed to have a say on whether the UK should leave the European Union. But Michael Ingle, a 27-year-old physiotherapist living in Surrey, defends his right to participate in the 23 June referendum. He says that as a taxpayer, and a citizen of the Commonwealth, what happens to Britain is important to him and will have ramifications for the wider world well beyond the cliffs of Dover. “It’s not just about Britain for me, which is why I’ve taken an interest in it,” Mr Ingle, from Sydney, says. “It’s about the West and the stability of this continent.”

United Kingdom: Expats likely to make up only 1% of eligible Brexit voters | Financial Times

Just under 200,000 British expats have registered to vote in the EU referendum, a small fraction of the several million eligible. British expats in Europe could have been a key constituency, on the assumption that they would be concerned at losing their right of residence. British embassies across Europe were asked to launch campaigns to persuade voters to register, with the embassy in Paris offering afternoon tea at the residence in a competition. But according to the Electoral Commission, only about 196,000 online applications have been received and a recommended cut-off point to apply for a postal vote passed this week. It said estimates showed the number of British citizens overseas might be as high as 5.5m.

United Kingdom: Can the Queen vote in the EU referendum? | BBC

The Sun newspaper’s been told off for misleadingly reporting that the Queen’s in favour of the UK leaving the European Union. But is she allowed to vote in next month’s referendum, asks Justin Parkinson. The Queen doesn’t vote. She “has to remain strictly neutral with respect to political matters” and is “unable to vote or stand for election”, according to the Buckingham Palace website. But this isn’t the whole story. The monarch is actually entitled in law to cast a ballot in general elections. “By convention the Queen doesn’t vote, rather than because of a legal impediment,” says an Electoral Commission spokesman.

United Kingdom: Nine police forces now investigating claims Tories breached spending rules | The Guardian

Nine police forces have now launched inquiries into whether the Conservative party breached spending rules during the 2015 general election campaign. Lincolnshire police became the latest force to confirm on Thursday that they were investigating the claims as the Tories handed over evidence regarding the controversy to the Electoral Commission. The allegations regarding breaches of spending rules centre on claims that the party listed the costs of bussing activists into key marginal seats under national spending accounts, rather than as local spending. Lincolnshire appears to be the ninth police force examining the allegations, which were first broadcast by Channel 4 News. The others are Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Mercia, and Devon and Cornwall. Any candidate found guilty of an election offence could face up to one year in prison and being barred from office for three years.

United Kingdom: Electoral Commission strikes 11 pro-Brexit campaign groups from official register | Telegraph

The Electoral Commission has struck off 11 pro-Brexit campaign groups from their official registered of EU Referendum campaigners after a Telegraph analysis raised concerns about how the Grassroots Out Movement intended to spend millions in campaign donations. In a statement, the Commission said that the 11 Grassroots Out or “GO” groups had been removed from the official register of campaign groups after “they were found not to meet the registration requirements” following a review. The move came a week after The Telegraph had reported misgivings among ‘Remain’ campaigners that the multiple ‘GO’ groups might be used to circumvent spending caps imposed on non-official campaigners.

United Kingdom: Barnet council chief steps down after election blunder | The Guardian

The chief executive of Barnet council has left his post after an election-day blunder resulted in many people in the north London borough being unable to vote. Andrew Travers has left Barnet council by “mutual agreement” following the fiasco on 5 May, in which thousands of names were missing from electoral lists at the north London authority’s 155 polling stations. Many residents attempting to vote in the mayoral and London assembly elections were turned away, including the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis. Mirvis was unable to vote and is yet to receive an apology. The council has been unable to say how many of the 236,196 registered voters were turned away. It has launched an investigation into what went wrong and to ensure arrangements for the EU referendum in June are appropriate.

United Kingdom: EU referendum: millions of British expats urged to register to vote | The Guardian

Millions of Britons living abroad are being urged by the Electoral Commission to register to vote by 16 May so they can take part in the EU referendum on 23 June. About 5.5 million British citizens are estimated to live outside the UK, with at least 1.2 million of these living in other EU countries, but only a fraction are on the electoral roll. Anyone who was registered in a UK constituency during the past 15 years is entitled to vote in British elections, but half of British expats are not aware of this fact. A survey of eligible voters by the Electoral Commission, the non-partisan body that oversees elections, found that 30% of people were unsure about the rights of overseas voters, while 20% thought, wrongly, that they were not allowed to vote. The commission surveyed 4,700 people, but mostly those living in Europe, meaning the survey is not representative of all British overseas voters.

United Kingdom: Will London Elect its First Muslim Mayor? | The Atlantic

Britain is holding local elections this week on what some have dubbed “Super Thursday,” but only one contest is worthy of the moniker: the race to succeed Boris Johnson as London’s mayor. Mayoral elections rarely draw international attention. But the British capital is no ordinary city and its mayoralty is no ordinary office. London holds tremendous sway within Britain itself, both as an economic powerhouse and a population center. Roughly one in 10 members of Parliament come from the city’s constituencies—more than hail from Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. The office itself is also something of an anomaly. British governance tends to favor councils of local officials and collective government by cabinets of ministers. London’s mayor, by comparison, is elected by millions of voters from the city and its surrounding suburbs. Because most of Britain does not directly vote for the ministers in Parliament, let alone the House of Lords or the queen, the mayor can claim a stronger democratic mandate than perhaps any British politician other than the prime minister (who herself is not directly elected to that post, but assumes it as leader of the largest party in Parliament).

United Kingdom: In London Mayoral Election, More Than City Hall Is at Stake | Wall Street Journal

Londoners will elect a new mayor on Thursday in a race that pits the son of a billionaire against the son of a bus driver and presents an electoral test for the Conservative Party ahead of a referendum on whether the U.K. should leave the European Union. A loss for the Conservative candidate, Zac Goldsmith, would be a setback for the party of Prime Minister David Cameron. But it could also help Mr. Cameron in his campaign to keep Britain in the EU, less than two months before the June 23 referendum: Mr. Goldsmith, one of the U.K.’s richest politicians, backs a British exit from the bloc and says it would benefit London.

United Kingdom: Second Scottish independence vote not yet on table, says Nicola Sturgeon | The Guardian

Nicola Sturgeon has said a second independence referendum will be “off the table” until there is a clear majority in favour of a fresh vote, as she faced a barrage of attacks from her rivals. The Scottish National party leader was accused of misleading voters by breaking her pledges to respect the result of the 2014 vote, coming under sustained pressure from Labour, the Tories and Liberal Democrats over her planned drive this summer to build support for a new referendum. During a frequently ill-tempered debate televised by the BBC, the last before Thursday’s Holyrood election, the leaders clashed over the future of defence ship-building jobs on the Clyde, whose safety had been guaranteed during the referendum, and over health spending. But the clash over independence drew the loudest cheers from the audience. Sturgeon was accused by Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, of “trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the people of Scotland” by resurrecting the chances of a further referendum in the SNP’s manifesto for Thursday’s Scottish parliament election.

United Kingdom: British expats lose legal battle for right to vote in EU referendum | The Guardian

The high court has rejected an attempt to force the government to grant millions of UK citizens living abroad a vote in this June’ s EU referendum. The legal challenge brought by two disenfranchised expats on behalf of those living overseas for more than 15 years was dismissed by Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mr Justice Blake. The government, the judges said, was entitled to adopt a cut-off period “at which extended residence abroad might indicate a weakening of ties with the United Kingdom”. The ruling also noted that there would be “significant practical difficulties about adopting, especially for this referendum, a new electoral register which includes non-resident British citizens whose last residence in the UK was more than 15 years ago”. The judges added: “Electoral registration officers currently retain records of previous electoral registers for a period of 15 years. They have no straightforward means of checking the previous residence status of British citizens who have been resident overseas for longer than 15 years.

United Kingdom: High Court hears expat challenge to Brexit vote | Financial Times

A legal challenge aimed at giving “substantial” numbers of Britons living in Europe the right to vote in the forthcoming EU referendum could throw into doubt the June 23 date of the vote if it succeeds, a court heard. The High Court in London is hearing a legal challenge against the government brought by several Britons living in Europe who claim they have been wrongly disenfranchised in the planned EU vote because they have lived outside Britain for 15 years, meaning they are ineligible to vote. The case is significant because there are between 1m to 2m Britons living in Europe — some of whom cannot vote as they have lived outside the UK for more than 15 years. The government claimed in written arguments on Wednesday that if the legal challenge succeeded, it could call into question the date of the referendum on June 23 as the case has been brought “late”.

United Kingdom: EU referendum vote could be overseen by ‘international monitors’ | Daily Express

It means this nation, which has just celebrated the 700th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, could be faced with the humiliating prospect of joining the ranks of Russia and Azerbaijan in having independent experts ensure fairness. Concerns will be raised at a meeting of the Council of Europe, a human rights organisation of 47 member nations which predates the EU, when it convenes on Monday. The call, by Tory MP Nigel Evans, was partly prompted by the Government’s decision to spend £9m of taxpayers’ money on pro-EU leaflets. Speaking to the Sunday Express, the MP for Ribble Valley said: “The Council has great expertise in monitoring elections – in a week’s time, I will be monitoring elections in Serbia.

United Kingdom: Vote Leave named as official Brexit campaign in EU referendum | The Guardian

The Electoral Commission has announced that Vote Leave has been designated as the official lead campaign urging Britain to leave the European Union in the run-up to the June referendum. The decision will allow the group to spend up to £7m it has raised itself, and it will also be given £600,000 of taxpayers’ money to spend on the administration costs of running a campaign. It will also be able to send one leaflet to every home in Britain – although the government has infuriated Brexit campaigners by sending its own publicly funded leaflet already. Vote Leave, which has the support of cabinet ministers and prominent Conservatives including Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Chris Grayling, and is chaired by the Labour MP Gisela Stuart, had been widely expected to be anointed as the lead group.

United Kingdom: Bosses Demand Clarity On EU Campaign Rules | Sky News

The bosses of some of Britain’s biggest companies are warning that they may refrain from further interventions in the debate about Europe amid concerns that they risk falling foul of strict campaign rules. Sky News understands that the Electoral Commission will publish new guidance on Monday setting out the scope of activities permissible for businesses once the referendum period formally begins on Friday. The decision to issue the updated rules comes after groups including the CBI warned the regulator that existing guidelines were mired in confusion.

United Kingdom: Election watchdog opposes Cameron’s pro-EU mailshots for 23m homes | International Business Times

The UK’s electoral watchdog has expressed its discontent over David Cameron’s decision to spend £9.3m ($13.1m) of taxpayers’ money on 23 million ‘remain’ leaflets ahead of the EU referendum. “We don’t think the government should have done it, but it’s not illegal,” a spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission told IBTimes UK. The 14-page documents will be sent to homes across Britain in a bid to drum-up support for a ‘remain’ vote ahead of the 23 June ballot. The move has enraged Eurosceptics, who have questioned the fairness of the initiative.

United Kingdom: Cameron’s purge of young voters from the electoral register could cost him the referendum | openDemocracy

David Cameron has spoken of his “fear” that Britain will vote to break with Brussels because of a low turnout. The Prime Minister’s sleep patterns will not have been helped then by Sunday’s Observer poll that put the Leave campaign ahead by 4 points. The poll also found that the group most supportive of remaining part of the EU are people in the 18-34 age group. Remain campaigns will say they have the future on their side. But as Freddie Sayers, YouGov’s editor-in-chief, says “the single most important driver of turnout is age.” And over 65s are more both more likely to be eurosceptic and more likely to vote. The Observer poll found 52 per cent of younger people were certain to vote, compared to 81 per cent of older voters. So Cameron now depends on the people least likely to have voted for his Conservative government to keep him in Downing Street. But crudely partisan attempts to make it more difficult for Labour and other left-wing parties to mobilise their supporters against the Conservatives may now come back to haunt him.

United Kingdom: Bill To Scrap Expat Voting Time Limit Dropped | iExpats

A Bill calling for internet voting for expats and the withdrawal of the 15-year time limit on their participation in UK elections was withdrawn after a short debate at Westminster. Chris Chope, MP for Christchurch, Dorset, withdrew a private members bill calling for the government to scrap the time limit. Constitutional Reform minister John Penrose told Parliament that he believed as many as 6 million expat voters could vote in British and European elections, but less than 2 million had signed up to the electoral roll and most of the rest were excluded by the time limit. The Tories promised in their election manifesto that the time limit would be scrapped, but have failed to do so in time for the UK Brexit referendum in June.

United Kingdom: EU referendum: Historic vote on Britain’s future will cost UK taxpayers £142m | International Business Times

The historic referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU will cost British taxpayers’ more than £142m ($200m, €179m), according to the Conservative government. Cabinet Office minister John Penrose said the total cost for the 23 June ballot had been discussed and agreed with the Electoral Commission. “This includes the expenses incurred by Counting Officers in running the poll, grants to the designated lead campaign organisations, the delivery by Royal Mail of campaign mailings from those organisations, and the cost of the central count,” the Tory MP informed parliament on 23 March.

United Kingdom: Nearly 800,000 names axed from voter register, official figures show | The Guardian

Almost 800,000 potential voters were deleted from the electoral register under government changes to the system, official figures have confirmed. The Electoral Commission said about 770,000 names were removed from the register as the government introduced the requirement that people sign up as individuals rather than as households. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the overall register in December 2015 had shrunk by 600,000 names in the preceding 12 months, suggesting a voter registration drive over the same period was successful in getting people to sign up. But Labour said the huge number of deletions meant hundreds of thousands of people were at risk of disenfranchisement, highlighting a particular problem in university towns and among younger people who are almost eligible to vote. Overall, the electoral register is smaller by 1.6 million names than at its peak in 2012 when 46.4 million people were on the list.

United Kingdom: Tories under investigation by Electoral Commission over ‘breaking election spending rules’ | The Independent

The Electoral Commission has launched an inquiry into whether the Conservatives violated election spending rules at the general election. An investigation by Channel 4 News said that alleged irregularities in recording expenses in Thanet South meant the Tories broke spending limits during the campaign. During last year’s election Ukip’s Nigel Farage lost to the Tories’ Craig Mackinlay in one of the most high-profile contests in the country. The loss for Ukip sparked Mr Farage’s short-lived resignation as party leader. However, the Conservatives were said to have attributed £14,000 worth of hotel bills spent for activists in Thanet South to “national” election expenditure rather than to Thanet South’s account.

United Kingdom: Shadow minister tells Corbyn to anticipate snap general election | The Guardian

Jeremy Corbyn has been told to put Labour on an election footing due to concerns a snap general election could be called later this year. Shadow defence minister Toby Perkins said Labour had to be prepared for David Cameron to quit after the EU referendum, even if he is on the winning side. Writing on the LabourList website, Perkins warned: “If Labour is confronted with a general election whilst intellectually and organisationally underprepared, divided and underresourced, we would be hurtling towards catastrophe.” He said that although under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act the next election was not due until 2020, if a new Tory leader called for an early ballot Labour would have to agree. “The prospect of the prime minister standing down in the event of a vote to leave has been often mooted,” he wrote.

United Kingdom: David Cameron’s hopes of early EU referendum recede after talks with Tusk | The Guardian

David Cameron’s preferred option of an early referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU edged further away after he failed to broker a deal with the president of the European council, Donald Tusk. The two men had hoped to finalise a renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Brussels over dinner at Downing Street so that it could be put to other EU leaders on Monday ahead of a crucial summit in less than three weeks. An early deal would allow Cameron to call a referendum on the UK’s EU membership before the summer. But a Downing Street source said that none of the four key areas under negotiation have been agreed. Instead, further negotiations will be left to diplomats or “sherpas” in Brussels on Monday, in the hope that a deal will be put to EU member states on Tuesday.

United Kingdom: Electoral register loses estimated 800,000 people | The Guardian

An estimated 800,000 people have dropped off the electoral register since the government introduced changes to the system, with students in university towns at highest risk of being disenfranchised, the Guardian has learned. Labour says it fears that the missing sections of the electorate are predominantly its supporters after the government moved from registration of electors by household to asking individuals to sign up, citing fears of fraud and error. The estimated number of voters registered in December – the first figure under the new individual electoral registration system – is lower than in the previous year, with just months to go before May’s local, assembly and mayoral elections.

United Kingdom: Expats fear time is running out to get voting rights restored before poll | Telegraph

Campaigners have responded with concern to a statement which reiterated a government pledge to restore voting rights for all British expats – without indicating whether this will happen in time for the EU referendum. One pensioner in France speculated that “Eurosceptics are holding this up in the Cabinet Office” amid fears that Britons who live in Europe would be most likely to vote against a Brexit. In a statement issued to Telegraph Expat, John Penrose, Minister for Constitutional Reform, said: “The 15-year rule has got to go. It’s why we said in our manifesto that we would scrap this outdated law and allow Britons a vote for life wherever they are.” But he did not say when that will happen. He went on to urge those who currently have the right to vote to join the electoral register as soon as possible.

United Kingdom: Ground rules set for landmark EU vote | The Financial Times

The EU referendum bill, having now passed through Parliament, faces only one final formality, receiving Royal assent, before it passes into law. The new legislation is of historic importance because it sets the ground rules for one of the biggest political contests in the modern history of Britain, governing the funding, the timing and the wording of the referendum. It will allow David Cameron to call a referendum as early as next summer, if he is minded to do so, with as little as 16 weeks’ notice. The government announced its original bill in the Queen’s Speech on May 27, 20 days after the Conservatives won the general election: it was introduced the day after.

United Kingdom: Electoral Commission hands Government a boost in bid to block votes for 16 year olds | Telegraph

The Electoral Commission has backed Conservative plans to block votes for 16 and 17 year olds in the European referendum, claiming the proposals put forward by Labour and the Liberal Democrats are not good enough. The powerful body has handed the Government a boost in the House of Lords ahead of a vote on Monday by publishing guidance stating some young voters could miss out if plans to extend the franchise were to go ahead. The opposition parties want to give young people the chance to vote on whether the UK should remain in the EU or leave, but Ministers are opposed to the plans.

United Kingdom: British parliament votes against lowering voting age for EU referendum | Reuters

Britain’s lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday against reducing the voting age for a referendum on EU membership, blocking a move that might have boosted the campaign to stay in the 28-member bloc. Members of parliament voted 303 to 253 to reject a move by the upper chamber, the House of Lords, to lower the voting age to 16 from 18 for the referendum which Prime Minister David Cameron has promised by the end of 2017. The Lords is now unlikely to be able to force through the change after the Commons speaker invoked “financial privilege”, which means that by convention the upper house should not overturn the lower house’s decision.