A FAMILY of exiled Brits fear they will be stranded in Gibraltar after Brexit.

Fiona Hesketh and her family moved from their Brighton home to live in Gibraltar. Fiona and husband Graham were unable to vote in the EU referendum as they no longer had a property in Britain.

Now they live on the Spanish side of the border and cross the border every day to work on a dolphin watching boat off the coast of Gibraltar.

They fear that if Brexit goes ahead on October 31 they will find themselves stranded.

Fiona, 49, said: “We are exiled Brits.

“We are not just expats we are totally exiled now.

“We are the victims of Brexit and we don’t seem to count.

“I was born and bred in Brighton, but I couldn’t vote on June 23, 2016.

“We couldn’t vote because before we left Britain we had been living on a boat at Brighton Marina.

I feel this is grossly unfair.

“At the time of the referendum we were in regular contact with Brighton council about trying to vote, they were very sympathetic but we weren’t able to vote as we did not have a fixed address.

“We are the people most affected by this and we didn’t even get a say.”

The family’s home is now in La Linea - less than five miles from the Rock of Gibralta - but their daily journeys to the Dolphin Safari boat Fiona, Graham and son Ben all work on could mean crossing the border out of the EU in just 16 days time.

The family come from long lines of Conservative polititians - Fiona’s mother Joan was a former leader of East Sussex County Council. Graham is a descendant of Sir Thomas Hesketh, who there is a statue of at Westminster Abbey.

She said: “Our family circumstances, living in Spain, working in Gibraltar, are going to, potentially, be made very difficult along with millions of other expats.

“Our concern is that we dont have any certainty. No one seems to be able to tell us what is going to happen.

“We don’t know if we’ll be allowed to stay in Spain, if we’ll be allowed to cross over to Gibraltar, if we’ll have to come back to Britain.

“We work on the Dolphin Safari boat. The whole family does. My husband works on the boat and Ben works in the office.

“We love it here.

“The kids have grown up her.

“Our lives are here and we don’t want to have to come back but we just don’t know what’s going to happen and that’s very troubling.”

“I feel our best hope yet is for there to be a general election and for Jo Swinson to win and call the whole thing off - but even then I don’t think we would be able to vote again.”

The government’s advice for people living in Spain after Brexit states: “If the UK leaves the EU with a deal, any UK national arriving in Spain before the end of the implementation period will be able to register as resident in Spain under the current rules, and will have their right to residence in Spain protected for as long as they remain living here.

“If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, any UK national residing in Spain before the date the UK leaves will be considered legally resident for a period of 21 months, irrespective of whether they currently hold a residency document.

“In some parts of Spain, UK nationals are currently unable to register as a resident as appointments are not available.”