European Union Referendum Bill — Clause 2 — Entitlement of EU Citizens to Vote in Referendum on the UK's Membership of the EU — 18 Jun 2015 at 15:45

The majority of MPs voted against allowing EU nationals resident in the UK to vote in the referendum on if the UK should remain a member of the European Union.

MPs were considering the European Union Referendum Bill[1].

The proposed amendment rejected in this vote was:

  • Amendment 18, in page 1, line 17, leave out from “electors” to the end of line 12 on page 2 and insert—
  • “at a local government election in any electoral area in Great Britain, or
  • (b) the persons who, on the date of the referendum, would be entitled to vote as electors at a local government election in any electoral area in Northern Ireland.”

An explanatory statement accompanying the rejected amendment stated:

  • This amendment extends the franchise in the referendum to EU nationals resident in the United Kingdom.

Had the rejected amendment been accepted Clause 2(1)(a) of the Bill[2] would have been affected, the clause set the starting point for eligibility to vote in the referendum and at the time of the vote stated:

  • (a) the persons who, on the date of the referendum, would be entitled to vote as electors at a parliamentary election in any constituency,

The rejected amendment sought to change the basis of eligibility to electors at local government elections, which includes relevant citizens of the European Union. Provisions relating to members of the House of Lords and Gibraltar which the rejected amendment sought to remove would have been rendered unnecessary following the change.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con310 (+2 tell) 0094.5%
DUP5 0062.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Lab192 6487.1%
LDem0 2025.0%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
SNP0 53 (+2 tell)098.2%
UKIP1 00100.0%
UUP1 0050.0%
Total:509 67490.7%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Jim FitzpatrickPoplar and LimehouseLabaye
Paul FlynnNewport WestLabaye
Mike GapesIlford SouthLabaye
John Martin McDonnellHayes and HarlingtonLabaye
Dennis SkinnerBolsoverLabaye
Keith VazLeicester EastLab (minister)aye
Paul BlomfieldSheffield CentralLabboth
Margaret GreenwoodWirral WestLabboth
Andy McDonaldMiddlesbroughLabboth
Ian MearnsGatesheadLab (minister)both

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