BOVF held first meeting for British Citizens living in Vienna
BOVF Vienna meeting
BOVF was established to galvanize UK citizens abroad to register to vote and importantly, through various mechanisms, to start to have real influence in the UK. Bruce Darrington, BOVF Chair addressed British residents in the Austrian capital to explain the BOVF strategy and, of course, to hear from them. Thanks to Brexit, BOVF core issues will resonate with many Britons in Austria and across the EU:
- Spouse and family visas
- UK university fees
- Access to UK bank accounts
BOVF campaigns for overseas constituencies, better communications with the UK government and an improved voting system. Remember the postal vote scandal in the last UK general election? Find out more about BOVF’s work here: https://bovf.org.uk/
Bruce invited UK citizens, including dual nationals, living in the Vienna area to join him for BOVF’s second European meeting.
Background: In 2024, the law changed allowing British citizens overseas to vote no matter how long they have lived outside the UK. This increased the overseas electorate to around 3.5m people, with much credit due to long-time Italian resident and ardent campaigner, the late Harry Shindler OBE. No doubt, he would be dismayed that, despite this electoral reform, only 200,000 are currently registered, just 6% of those eligible. By comparison over one million Italians abroad voted in Italy’s last general election, around 26% of its overseas electorate. “There’s much work to be done,” says Bruce Darrington, BOVF Chair. “Harry Shindler, died aged 101 in 2023 so sadly did not get to cast his vote after the lifting of the 15-year-rule.”.