CITIZENSHIP PROPOSALS AND COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS

Early day motion 1010, tabled 21 February 2008 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 62 members.

That this House is shocked to find that the Green Paper The Path to Citizenship includes a Government proposal to consult on abolishing the `UK ancestry' route to entry into the UK; points out that this route was a 1972 abridgement of a partial right which had been long available before, to allow Commonwealth citizens to come into the United Kingdom and work if they had a grandparent born in the United Kingdom; emphasises that such entry is an historic and a moral obligation, so that though the numbers entering are small, to even consider getting rid of it will produce shock, anger and dismay in Commonwealth countries which fought two World Wars shoulder to shoulder with the United Kingdom, and have maintained close relations since, and will anger the large number of families and relations with Commonwealth connections in the United Kingdom; and totally rejects the view expressed by Home Department officials to Commonwealth diplomats that the concepts of immigration and of Commonwealth that this route is linked to are `outdated', while New Zealand diplomats were `left in no doubt that neither officials nor Minister Byrne considered themselves bound to New Zealand by any historical ties', an amazing betrayal of the Commonwealth, a failure to understand history, and a brutal incomprehension of loyalties, associations, fellowships and relationships totally unworthy of officials who claim to be `putting British values at the heart of the immigration system'.

Signatures by party: Labour 28, Conservative 17, Liberal Democrat 6, Scottish National Party 5, DUP 3, Independent 3.