This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The government has said it remains committed to passing a law that could allow tax exiles the right to vote and donate to political parties for life, after it failed to pass through the House of Commons.

MPs, including the serial filibusterer Philip Davies, tabled dozens of amendments to the overseas electors bill for debate on Friday, resulting in it being dropped after parliamentary time to discuss it ran out.

Under current law, British expatriates can remain on the electoral roll, allowing them to vote and make donations, for 15 years after they leave the UK. The overseas electors bill proposed removing the time limit, giving all expats the right to vote and donate for life.

Speaking on behalf of the government, the cabinet office minister Chloe Smith told the House: “The government remains committed to scrapping the cap.” The Conservative party pledged to bring in the law in its 2017 manifesto.

Anti-corruption campaigners and Labour MPs had expressed alarm at the bill. Margaret Hodge, the former chair of parliament’s public accounts committee, described the bill as “shocking” and warned it would “increase tax haven billionaires’ influence and allow dirty money donations to political parties”.

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The bill was introduced by the Conservative MP Glyn Davies, who said the bill would give as many as 4.8 million expats the right to vote. He argued the change would enhance the fairness of the electoral system.

“They’ve contributed to British society, very often before they’ve moved abroad, they’ve got family here afterwards, they’ve got an interest in Britain,” he said.

However the anti-corruption group Global Witness denounced the bill as “representation without taxation”.

“If you haven’t lived in the UK for 15 years, and you haven’t paid tax in the UK – and in some instances moved away for that very reason – why should you have the right to influence UK politics?” asked Naomi Hirst, a senior campaigner with the organisation.

Although a law was passed in 2009 to prevent “non-doms” – UK taxpayers who claim that their true home is overseas for tax purposes – from being able to donate to political parties, it has never been enacted by ministers.

Earlier this month the Times reported that the Conservative party had accepted more than £1m of donations from tax havens prior to the 2017 general election.

The party has struggled to sustain a sizeable donor base. According to Bloomberg News, the party chief executive, Mick Davis, and its chairman, Brandon Lewis, told a meeting of Conservative MPs this week that just 30 people provided half the party’s funds, and nearly one third was provided by just six people.

Three other high-value donors said last month they were uncertain whether to continue contributing. One observed that the party was “dying on its feet”.

In a briefing for MPs, the Electoral Commission warned that the bill would “add strain to already stretched resources of electoral administrators”, requiring them to verify the identity and eligibility to vote of individuals who could have left the UK decades ago.

“The government must carefully consider the risks of allowing unfettered donations from abroad,” said Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society. “Unscrupulous states will be looking for loopholes to steer our politics, meaning we should pause before opening the floodgates further.”

Chris Matheson, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said the bill contained too many loopholes and called for the government to extend the franchise to 16- and 17-year-old citizens instead.

“If the Conservatives were serious about improving democratic engagement, they would extend the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds as well as concentrating efforts on registering the millions of adults in this country not currently on the electoral roll,” he said.