CONTROVERSY over giving the vote to settled EU nationals in the UK is overblown, according to the former leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable.
Asked if EU nationals should get the vote, he told GB News: “Yes. And we already do with some of the Commonwealth and people of Irish nationality. And let’s not forget that some years ago, the Conservative government then extended the franchise to British residents living overseas for a limited period.”
In a discussion with Nigel Farage, he continued: “Nigel, I’ve thought you might have welcomed this, actually, because, you know, if you look at the position of Polish and other East Europeans, lots of them could have just gone back to Poland and walked away.
“Some of them have committed themselves to this country. They’ve taken settled status. They’re now part of our society. They’re paying their taxes.”
Asked why migrants could not simply apply for citizenship, he said: “I don’t think so. They have settled status. A lot of them, the vast majority of them will dually apply for British citizenship with the extra rights and entitlements that that involves.
“But in the meantime, we’re talking about residents, people who have been here for a period of time who pay their taxes.”
He added: “I think working towards better relations with Europe is certainly a priority. But, you know, we’re not going to rejoin in the next few years.”
Asked about allowing 16 year olds to vote, Sir Vince said: “Yes, of course, they should vote, I’m really strongly in favour of it. We’ve argued it for many years, it’s got nothing to do with tactical calculations about how many of them would vote for us.
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“I think what we discovered in Scotland, actually, is that their voting patterns were greatly different from older people.
“But the reason why it’s right – it’s not merely that we want young people to be politically engaged, when we’re becoming older as a society there’s a much heavier weight on the opinions of older people who naturally want to spend money on health and care rather than education and training.”
