After the UK left the European Union (EU), the rules about who can vote changed for people from EU countries.
Now, if you are from the EU and living in England, there are special rules about who can vote. What you need to do depends on where you come from and when you moved to the UK.
The UK government made these changes through a law called the Elections Act 2022. With this law, most people from the EU will not be able to vote or be chosen in local elections in England anymore.
There are two groups of EU citizens who can still vote:
- qualifying EU citizens (this means they meet special rules)
- EU citizens with retained rights (this means they were allowed to vote before and can still do so)
People from Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus are not affected by these changes - they can still vote like before.
For more information and to check if you are affected visit the Electoral Commission website