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British Nationality
[7 OCTOBER 1981 ]
Shackleton is not in the House today. He has had to go to the United States and, because he is a friend of mine in a non-political context, I undertook to say how sorry he was not to be here. He would have been able to speak from his background of family connection and from his knowledge displayed in the report with which your Lordships will be familiar, which he submitted to the Government of the day, about the future of the Falkland Islands. He would have been very much more effective than I have been in supporting the case for the amendment which has been put down by the noble Baroness..
6.2 p.m.
Lord Boyd-Carpenter: My Lords, I see my noble friend Lady Vickers this afternoon in the role of temptress-
Baroness Vickers: I would not try to tempt you.
Lord Boyd-Carpenter: My Lords, it would be indelicate if I were to reply in kind to my noble friend and, perhaps, even discourteous. I should hate to be discourteous to her. But I use that expression because, if one were dealing with this matter in isolation, I should certainly find myself on her side. We are dealing with a very limited number of people of British origin in an isolated position, faced by wholly unjustifi- able claims by the Argentine which have caused alarm to them, and there is little doubt that an amendment of this kind would give them a measure of assurance.
But we are not dealing with this matter in isolation. Thanks to the scheme of this Bill, which I personally deplore as I have said to your Lordships on a number of occasions, I do not like the scheme of the Bill but the House has so far accepted it and, if it becomes law, it will have to be operated---it is difficult to make excep- tions. So far as I personally am concerned, I argued at some length during the debate in July on Gibraltar, that it was possible to distinguish the case of Gibraltar, to secure to the Gibraltarians full British citizenship without in the phrase that several of my noble friends on the Front Bench used several times in that debate--- opening the floodgates.
I do not want to bore your Lordships by recalling that lengthy debate, but you will recall that the argu- ment which in due course prevailed with a majority of your Lordships was that the European situation of the Gibraltarians distinguished them, clearly and sharply, from the other citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies, as they now are, whose status is being affected by the somewhat unfortunate provisions of this Bill. I argued that view. It is a view that prevailed in the House as a whole, and I would therefore feel it very difficult personally to go back on it, even for such an attractive argument as my noble friend Lady Vickers has put forward.
If the Bill becomes law, I would feel that this was one of the unhappy consequences of it. But we have to proceed now on the basis that the House of Commons has approved the Bill, this House is now well into the Report stage and therefore, as a working hypothesis, it may well become law. On that basis, I feel that the rather overworked floodgates argument has force and therefore, much as I sympathise with my noble friend's point of view, much more as I sympathise with the HL 32 G
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position of the Falkland islanders, for whom I have the greatest admiration, if my noble friend were to force this to a Division and the Government were to resist it I should find myself, none the less, not terribly happily, in the Government Lobby.
Lord Geddes: My Lords-
Lord Sandys: My Lords, I think it would be appro- priate if, at this stage, the Government made a state-
ment.
Lord Trefgarne: My Lords, of course my intervention now will not preclude my noble friend intervening later, if he feels that he would like to do so. I should like to begin by paying tribute to my noble friend Lady Vickers for the way in which she has presented her case for the peoples of the Falkland Islands. She has, indeed, again on this occasion presented their cause most cogently; her concern for their well-being-—a concern which I know is shared in almost every part of your Lordships' House-has again been impressively dis- played. The amendment that she proposes seeks to provide for the acquisition of British citizenship not only by those born in the Falklands after commence- ment, but also by those alive immediately before commencement who have ties with the Falkland Islands through their residence there, or because one of their parents was settled there.
The Government share the concern for the welfare of the peoples of the Falkland Islands, which my noble friend and many others have expressed. We greatly value their loyalty and appreciate the deep affection which the peoples of the Falklands have for this country and we have sought, and will continue to seek, to ensure that they and their children continue to enjoy the rights and privileges which they now hold. Nothing in this Bill alters our obligations and commitments to the people of the Falkland Islands. Nothing in this Bill deprives anyone in the Falkland Islands of any right that he or she now holds--and I should like to emphasise that point. Those in the Falkland Islands who now have the right of abode in this country through their ancestral ties with the United Kingdom-and that is the majority of the population there--will become British citizens on commencement and will continue to hold the right of abode for the rest of their lives.
But this amendment would, of course, go much further than that. It would, in effect, mean that virtu- ally everyone with ties with the Falkland Islands would have a claim to British citizenship, no matter what were his ties with the United Kingdom. What is more, it means that British citizens living in the Falkland Islands will be able to transmit their citizenship to their descendants born there, without limit to the number of generations removed from the United King- dom. It really is very difficult to reconcile this amendment with the concept of British citizenship reflected in the Bill-a citizenship confined to people who were born, naturalised or registered in the United Kingdom, generally speaking, or who are not more than two generations removed from such a person.
For the amendment can be seen in three parts. First, it would have no effect, as I have said, on the status under the new Act of the majority of the people of the Falkland Islands, who will be British citizens,
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