Plan to strip citizenship from ‘extremists' during appeals clears Commons
Under the legislation, alleged extremists who lose their British citizenship but win an appeal against the decision will not have it reinstated before the Home Office has exhausted all avenues for appeal.
During the Bill's committee stage, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said black, Asian and ethnic minority communities will be 'alarmed' by the proposals.
Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said the legislation has 'nothing to do with somebody's place of birth, but everything to do with their behaviour'.
Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Conservative former minister Kit Malthouse said: 'My trouble with this legislation is that it puts a question mark over certain citizens.
'When it's used with increasing frequency, it does put a question mark over people's status as a citizen of the United Kingdom, and that, I think, is something that ought to be of concern.'
Intervening, Mr Jarvis said: 'He's making his points in a very considered way, but he is levelling quite serious charges against the Government.
'Can I say to him, in absolute good faith, that our intentions here have nothing to do with somebody's place of birth, but everything to do with their behaviour.'
Mr Malthouse said: 'I'm not concerned about it necessarily falling into his hands as a power, but we just don't know who is going to be in his place in the future, and we're never quite sure how these powers might develop.'
He continued: 'What I'm trying to do with my amendment is to explain to him that this is an area of law where I would urge him to tread carefully, where I would urge him to think about the compromises that he's creating against our basic freedoms that we need to maintain.'
The MP for North West Hampshire had tabled an amendment which would allow a person to retain their citizenship during an appeals process if they face 'a real and substantial threat of serious harm' as a result of the order.
It would also have required a judge to suspend the removal of citizenship if the person's ability to mount an effective defence at a subsequent appeal was impacted, or the duration of the appeal process was excessive because of an act or omission by a public authority.
Ms Ribeiro-Addy spoke in support of the amendment, she said: 'Certain communities are often wary of legislation that touches on citizenship, because it almost always – whether it is the stated intention or not – disproportionately impacts them.
'And to put this clearly to the minister, I'm talking about people of black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, those who have parents who may have been born elsewhere, or grandparents, for that matter, they will be particularly alarmed by this legislation.
'Those of us who have entitlement to citizenship from other countries for no other reason than where our parents may have been born, or where our grandparents may have been born, or simply because of our ethnic origin, we know that we are at higher risk of having our British citizenship revoked.
'And when such legislation is passed, it creates two tiers of citizenship. It creates second-class citizens.'
The MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill added: 'I would like to ask why the minister has not seen it fit to conduct an equality impact assessment on this Bill? I know it's an incredibly narrow scope, but these potential implications are vastly potentially impact-limited to specific communities.'
At the conclusion of the committee stage, Mr Jarvis said: 'The power to deprive a person of British citizenship does not target ethnic minorities or people of particular faiths, it is used sparingly where a naturalised person has acquired citizenship fraudulently, or where it is conducive to the public good.
'Deprivation on conducive grounds is used against those who pose a serious threat to the UK, or whose conduct involves high harm. It is solely a person's behaviour which determines if they should be deprived of British citizenship, not their ethnicity or faith.'
'The impact on equalities has been assessed at all stages of this legislation,' he added.
The Bill was passed on the nod.
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The Guardian
44 minutes ago
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Details have emerged for the first time of an enormous accidental data breach by a British official in 2022 that put 100,000 Afghans at risk of torture and death, and the huge efforts by successive governments to keep the blunder secret, citing the risk of Taliban reprisals. Thousands of Afghan people – some of whom had worked with British forces in the country – have been secretly relocated to the UK as a direct result of the leak, at an additional cost of more than £850m. The breach has been subject to a superinjunction since August 2023, meaning journalists were banned from disclosing anything about it – or even the fact that an injunction existed. The superinjunction, which is the first ever requested by a British government and the longest in history, was lifted by the high court on Tuesday, which is why details of the leak and response can now be revealed. The leak in February 2022 was the result of an error by a defence official, who had been tasked with verifying applications to the Afghanistan Resettlement and Assistance Policy (Arap) resettlement scheme, designed for Afghans who had worked for British forces in the country. Working outside authorised government systems, he contacted a number of Afghans in the UK, believing he was sending a list of 150 names. Instead, he had emailed a copy of the entire list of applicants, from where it was passed on to others in Afghanistan. The Times reported the official was a British soldier based at Regent's Park barracks, the headquarters of the UK special forces. The leaked dataset contained the personal details of 18,800 individuals who were applying for resettlement along with their family members, including their phone numbers and in some cases addresses, amounting to 33,000 lines of data. Some emails of British government officials were also disclosed. It was discovered in August 2023 by an activist who was helping Afghans who had worked for UK forces. One of her contacts alerted her in alarm saying that an anonymous member of a Facebook group had said he had the database and was threatening to post it in full. She immediately contacted the MoD, saying: 'The Taliban may now have a 33,000-long kill list – essentially provided to them by the British government. If any of these families are murdered, the government will be liable.' The discovery was 'simply bone-chilling', she wrote. The realisation sparked panic in Whitehall, and an immediate hunt for the source of the leak. At the same time, UK officials contacted 1,800 Arap applicants in Pakistan warning them that they might be in danger. The MoD asked Facebook to remove the post, citing the 'risk of physical harm'. 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Defence Secretary offers ‘sincere apology' for leak of Afghans' personal data
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