There were many things to support in the party strategy motion. It includes confident liberalism, modern campaigning, and reaching new communities. However, there is one notable exclusion. In fact, around five million notable exclusions: citizens abroad.

The strategy talks about reaching out to all communities in our country. These five million people are not in the UK, but they are served by our democracy. I live in Switzerland now, having moved for a job. Yet decisions made in Westminster continue to affect my life.

The starkest of those in recent years was of course Brexit. Many of the million British citizens living and working in Europe spent years in limbo after the referendum, not knowing what residency status they would eventually be afforded in the country in which they had built a life. We continue to see Britons being removed from EU countries, most recently Charles, a British citizen deported from Sweden.

All because of a decision made in Westminster. 

It doesn’t stop there. A pensioner retiring to Australia from the UK in 2006 would now receive less than half the basic State Pension of a pensioner who stayed in the UK, despite having made exactly the same contributions.

A family looking to repatriate to the UK from abroad, bringing a non-citizen spouse, had their income requirement increased by nearly 60% in 2024: a decision by a Government wanting to look tough on immigration, using citizens living abroad as scapegoats.

As liberals, we believe democracy means more than simply having the right to put a cross in a box. Voters need the opportunity to make an informed choice. Yet at the last general election I received no campaign material from any candidates standing in my Twickenham constituency. Many candidates don’t even put their leaflets online, so a determined voter like me can’t even do their own research. Not that I would’ve voted for anyone other than Munira, of course.

The strategy calls for more video content to reach people beyond our traditional ground campaign. Citizens abroad are perhaps the clearest example of people our ground campaign cannot reach.

Five million citizens abroad deserve a voice, and those entitled to vote deserve to be reached, so it is regrettable that Lib Dems Abroad’s amendment was not selected. We weren’t asking for a wholesale rewrite of the strategy, but for small tweaks to language that we felt inadvertently excluded citizens abroad: for example, by replacing “in our country” with “served by our democracy”.

We may live beyond Britain’s borders, but we are still part of its democracy. Westminster’s decisions still affect our lives, and our party’s strategy should have recognised that.

* Tom McAdam is the Lib Dems Abroad representative on FIRC, a member of the Lib Dems Abroad Steering Committee, and Membership Development Officer of Lib Dems in Europe Local Party.