Foreigners might have to wait longer to become British citizens
Foreign nationals could have to wait longer to become British citizens under plans to make the United Kingdom appear less of a ‘soft touch’ on immigration, the Mail on Sunday understands.
Home Office officials are considering bringing the UK closer into line with other countries by extending the criterion of ‘continuous residence’ from five years to eight years before they grant an indefinite leave to remain – the first step towards citizenship.
Other changes being considered include requiring applicants to have worked or been at school in the UK for two years; a strict threshold for criminality – such as demanding that an applicant must have been conviction-free for at least ten years; and removing the exemption for the over-65s from knowledge tests about British life.
This all comes after Rishi Sunak has made the toughening up of immigration policies one of his key priorities.
Last week he told a gathering of European leaders that tackling excess migration should be ‘at the top of the international agenda’.
He has also made stopping the boats carrying migrants across the Channel one of his five pledges before next year’s General Election, regarding it as particularly critical to winning over voters in the Red Wall seats of the Midlands and the North.
A Government source said: ‘Becoming a UK citizen is a privilege not a right. Those awarded the status should have earned it by contributing to our nation and it is important we can all speak to each other in a common tongue.’
Cabinet Minister Michael Gove recently accused Sir Keir Starmer of planning to ‘downgrade the ultimate privilege of British citizenship’ by giving EU nationals in the UK the right to vote in a General Election.
The Levelling Up Secretary wrote to Sir Keir saying it had been the ‘settled constitutional position for many decades’ that voting in a General Election was limited to British, Irish and qualifying Commonwealth citizens.
