On the 17th of December, Bruce Darrington, Chair of BOVF, met with Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich in the Commons for Tea. 

At 81, he is equally the longest-serving MP in the House of Commons and misses out on being Father of the House because another MP was sworn in as a new MP 10 minutes before him back in June 1983. 

Sir Roger has been a persistent campaigner on the Frozen Pension issue and, together with another Conservative MP, Peter Bottomley, almost succeeded in persuading Treasury ministers to agree to annual pension upgrades (although no backdating) but was thwarted at the last minute by Government lawyers he says. He was also a persistent campaigner to extend the Vote to all British citizens living overseas who once lived in the UK and justifiably claims some of the credit for bringing in the change of law that allowed this to happen on 16 January 2024. 

Despite working so hard on the Frozen Pension issues for so long, he is not ready to give it up and is happy to be our MP champion on this issue. 

He expressed a strong interest in being introduced to our Champion MPs on the Labour and Liberal Democrat benches and working cross-party on the issue.

If you are not aware of the issues BOVF campaigns for, they are;

• UnjustFrozen Pensions
• Unfair Overseas Uni Fees for British students studying in the UK
• Harsh Spousal Reunion rules
• Right to a British bank account
• Discriminatory Housing Loan Interest.
• Using Embassies as polling stations
• Creating Overseas Constituencies

For more information about the British Overseas Voters Forum, see https://www.bovf.org.uk/