Title: No vote, no voice: EU migrants and the general election
Headings: 
24 April 2015
No vote, no voice: EU migrants and the general election

Content: “It is not fair to be discriminated. There are now more EU residents in the UK than from the Commonwealth,” Tomescu says. “A lot of people ask me how it is that they cannot vote here although they are members of the European Union, while people from Malta or Gibraltar can.” He explains that with recently introduced rules on housing and child benefits, which make it harder for EU migrants to claim for them, EU nationals get continually fewer rights in the UK. Earlier this year, London-based Tomescu wrote to 650 MPs and members of the House of Lords and introduced to them the party’s “Let Us Vote and Stand” campaign. He invited them to discuss the issue, but only a few got back to him with a positive response. “One of the members said straight away ‘no, we will never allow you to’,” says Tomescu. “But Lord Balfe of Dulwich broadly agreed with me and asked if I had a draft bill that can be presented to Parliament.” Lord Richard Balfe is well known for being a political maverick. The Conservative peer was expelled from the Labour Party in 2002 when he, against the party’s will, stood for election as one of the European parliament's five quaestors who overlook the administrative and financial interests of MEPs.