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EU citizens denied vote in European elections to sue UK government
Source: The Guardian
EU citizens denied vote in European elections to sue UK government
Exclusive: Campaign groups prepare legal challenge following ‘systemic denial’ of suffrage
Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent
Sat 25 May 2019 14.09 BST First published on Sat 25 May 2019 14.08 BST
The government is facing the prospect of being sued by campaigners for EU citizens in the UK and British nationals abroad who were denied a vote in the European parliament elections.
John Halford, a public law specialist at Bindmans, said this week’s electoral fiasco was something a democracy should not tolerate.
“The right to vote is the foundation for all citizenship rights,” he said. “Last Thursday saw a large-scale, systematic, openly discriminatory denial of that right. The case we plan to bring will show that this is not something the law will tolerate and that there must be accountability and consequences.”
Halford is working with the the3million group in the UK, which campaigns for the rights of EU citizens after Brexit, and also with British in Europe, which campaigns for Britons settled elsewhere in the bloc.
A crowdfunding campaign was launched on Saturday to finance the legal case, which is being urgently explored in consultation with barristers, including Anneli Howard and Dinah Rose, who conducted a BBC investigation into abuse allegations against Jimmy Savile.
-snip-
Exclusive: Campaign groups prepare legal challenge following ‘systemic denial’ of suffrage
Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent
Sat 25 May 2019 14.09 BST First published on Sat 25 May 2019 14.08 BST
The government is facing the prospect of being sued by campaigners for EU citizens in the UK and British nationals abroad who were denied a vote in the European parliament elections.
John Halford, a public law specialist at Bindmans, said this week’s electoral fiasco was something a democracy should not tolerate.
“The right to vote is the foundation for all citizenship rights,” he said. “Last Thursday saw a large-scale, systematic, openly discriminatory denial of that right. The case we plan to bring will show that this is not something the law will tolerate and that there must be accountability and consequences.”
Halford is working with the the3million group in the UK, which campaigns for the rights of EU citizens after Brexit, and also with British in Europe, which campaigns for Britons settled elsewhere in the bloc.
A crowdfunding campaign was launched on Saturday to finance the legal case, which is being urgently explored in consultation with barristers, including Anneli Howard and Dinah Rose, who conducted a BBC investigation into abuse allegations against Jimmy Savile.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/25/eu-citizens-denied-vote-in-european-elections-to-sue-uk-government
