Two classes of citizenship?
Immigration debate
Diane Abbott has warned the government that their Immigration Bill, now headed for the House of Lords, risks creating a system where there are two classes of citizenship.
Abbott, the outspoken MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington has been a long time critic of all major parties on issues to do with immigration and minority rights.
Speaking at a Westminster Hall debate today about the powers of the Home Office to remove citizenship, she claimed this new bill unfairly discriminated against those who obtained British citizenship by naturalisation, as opposed to those who were born here. She claimed a specific clause in the bill would create ‘Class A’ and ‘Class B’ citizens.
The clause in question — clause 60 of the Immigration Bill — allows the Home Secretary, in the name of security and public good, to render terror suspects stateless by depriving them of their nationality, but only in cases where citizenship has been gained through naturalisation.
In defence of her claims, Abbott quoted Jacob Rees-Mogg, the traditional Tory MP for North East Somerset, who spoke out during the report stage, but didn’t actively oppose the clause. Rees-Mogg said, “I worry that if we give the government the ability to take passports away from a certain category of British subjects, but not from others, it will create potential unfairness and a second category of citizen.”
The bill is widely seen as a response to the decade long Abu Qatada saga, but this particularly controversial clause would not have applied in that instance as Qatada was a Jordanian citizen, not a British one. In response to claims that this clause could help deport “home-grown” terrorists, Abbott suggested that the correct way of dealing with those suspected of crime was to start criminal procedures, not to try and redefine their nationality.
Mark Harper’s replacement as Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire, responded by pointing out that this particular clause was only for use in extreme circumstances, with extensive research, and each use would have to be approved by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, herself. He spurned any notion that this would create two classes of citizenship, and said the bill “protects the security of the UK, without forgetting our international obligations.”
Responding to the uncertainty surrounding the legality of deporting stateless persons, those without the citizenship of any nation, Brokenshire said the Home Office would try and “regularise their position within the UK.” If that included them living with refugee status, or similar, was uncertain.
Rejecting Theresa May’s characterisation of British citizenship as a privilege not a right, Abbot said that it is in reality a fact, and that any other characterisation can lead to abuses. She concluded: “Once you decide it’s not a fact, and the state can stop and change in what light they regard your citizenship, I believe it’s a very dangerous road to go down.”
The Immigration Bill is expected to enter the committee stage in the House of Lords on the 3rd of March.
