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After the French created a new parliamentary constituency of Northern Europe to represent the millions of French expats living in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia one British expat has taken it upon himself to lead the charge for parliamentary representation for the British expatriate community.
Retired policeman and expat Peter Johnson, 64 has created an Downing Street online petition designed to pressure the UK government to make moves to provide political representative rights to the millions of British expats living abroad in Europe and around the world.
Britain wouldn’t be the first country to provide Members of Parliament for their expatriate community with italy having done so in 2006 and France having a total of 11 MPs representing their expatriates in the lower house.
Although expats can still vote in the constituency they last lived in, this right only exists for 15 years and even within that time their particular concerns as expats aren’t represented in Parliament.
Peter Johnson said, “There are millions of Brits living abroad and they deserve a say in what goes on. Many of them are still paying tax in the UK in one way or another and they should have a say on where their money goes.
“As with the French system I see no reason why each geographical area cannot be represented. Europe, USA and Canada, the Middle East and Asia for example.”