Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

I take it seriously but, actually, I disagree. For me the principal concept of citizenship is that people have a right to be a citizen and not to be stateless. That is fundamental, in my personal view, but it does not mean that you have a right to be a citizen of more than one nation. Citizenship may be given by another nation for various reasons, which is perfectly acceptable. Let us say that someone lives as a citizen of our country but he does not act in the interests of the country—we can argue about the higher or the lower test, but let me take the principle behind it—and he is not interested in being part of the country or in supporting or welcoming the things that make our country the country we wish it to be—a diverse, enriched nation with a democratic future, and so on, where people are equal—and if that person does not believe in that and is going to act in opposition to it but he has citizenship of the country, one must look at all the mechanisms available and take citizenship, in my view, extremely seriously. If someone is a citizen elsewhere and chooses to use his citizenship here to behave inappropriately, it is right and proper to have the capacity to say that we do not wish him to be a citizen here—not least because, if he chose to leave the country, it would mean that we did not automatically have to give him the right to re-enter. There are cases and examples of people for whom I believe that that is right.