UK Borders Bill

I would be very happy if I thought that the circumstances made it plainly desirable to dispense with one. I simply think that giving British citizenship to the child of a couple, neither of whom had British citizenship on the date of the child’s birth, would present serious problems and would not be acceptable. If we were to back to before 1949, we would have to limit the right to citizenship to the relatively small numbers of people who have a foreign father, a mother who was a British citizen on the date of the child’s birth, and who were born abroad. That would give rise to anomalies. However, this is far from being the most important issue in this matter. The Minister put up no serious arguments whatsoever for rejecting the amendment. Neither he nor, no doubt, those who have briefed him on this matter have been able to come up with anything which gives the slightest justification for the present position. The Minister said that the legacy cannot be ignored. Of course the legacy cannot be ignored, but where the legacy is itself an unfair and unjustifiable one, as here, then surely what we mean when we say, ““the legacy cannot be ignored””, is that we must correct the injustice done by the original legislation. The argument remains an extremely strong one. In those circumstances, and in view of the support that it has received in the Moses Room, it is my intention to bring the amendment back on Report so that it can be argued on the Floor of your Lordships’ House.