TNAG-2372-FCO40-3447-Hong-Kong-nationality-UK-passport-scheme-British-Nationalit-1991 — Page 86

1581

British Nationality (Hong Kong) Bill

19 APRIL 1990

British Nationality (Hong Kong) Bill

1582

[Mr. Hattersley]

residents they were prepared to allow to come to Britain and the number of entrants would then have been the total within those prospective categories.

Mr. James Couchman (Gillingham): Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

Mr. Hattersley: We know that the Government chose the figure of 50,000 men and women of special merit and-

Mrs. Currie: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

Mr. Couchman: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

Mr. Hattersley: I shall give way to the hon. Lady.

Mrs. Currie: It is noticeable in the House that the right hon. Gentleman is ploughing through his notes with his head down. I am glad-and grateful to him-that he has at last raised his head to answer a question. Is it not a matter of logic from what he is saying that everybody in Hong Kong who wants to come in should have a passport and be able to do so? As that is not acceptable and is unlikely to happen. he is saying that nobody should come. Would it not be better to put his points into a reasoned amendment and to support the Second Reading tonight?

Mr. Hattersley: I am sorry that the hon. Lady missed the television at 5.10 pm-(Interruption.] Of course, that is why I waited before giving way. What is right is that those with special needs should be allowed into the country. If she can bear to listen with patience, as the cameras are off. I am about to describe what those categories are and how we should assess them.

The net result of the strange compromise between the Foreign Secretary's pro-consular illusions and the Home Secretary's tabloid populism provides for people coming into this country who do not remotely conform to the criteria that the Government once laid down in the British Nationality Act 1981. such as the criteria of established relationship with this country or a determination to become permanently associated with it. More importantly, this strange, cobbled-together compromise will deny citizenship to men and women who need, deserve and want it. Such iniquities and inequities can be avoided only by the application to Hong Kong of this country's general policy on nationality and immigration—not the policy we have now, which is often unjust and discriminatory, but the immigration policy which we should have and which, under the Labour Government, we will have. Under that policy, there would be no general distribution of passports by Home Secretaries on the basis of schemes cobbled together from dubious principies and divisive practices.

When Lord Whitelaw introduced the British Nationality Bill, the Tory party used to believe that the award of British citizenship should be based on constant principles: birth in Britain, a long period of residence in Britain or a close personal association with Britain. British citizenship should be given away by the Government according to principies, not according to the mood of the moment. That remains our view. We should apply to Hong Kong the compassionate and consistent principles of our published immigration policy. For many of the citizens who thus came to this country. British citizenship might well follow.

Mr. Ian Bruce (Dorset, South): Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

Mr. Hattersley: I will give way just once more, then I shall obey Mr. Deputy Speaker's injunction to make progress.

Mr. Ian Bruce: The right hon. Gentleman is clearly a well-known international statesman, but he may not be as well known as his right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester. Gorton (Mr. Kaufman). The right hon. Member for Gorton said that any right of abode given by this Parliament under the Bill, or under any other, would not necessarily be maintained by an incoming Labour Government. Will the right hon. Member for Birmingham. Sparkbrook (Mr. Hattersley) repudiate that particular statement?

Mr. Hattersley: Our position on that is clear. If the Bill is passed, we shall, of course, accept its provisions, but as I have already pointed out to the House, the Bill is so constructed that the scheme that it governs can be changed from time to time. Clearly, the Government would not abandon the right to change the scheme in the Bill and neither would we. If the Bill is passed. we shall respect it. My right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester. Gorton (Mr. Kaufman) has never said anything remotely different from that.

Mr. Nicholas Bennett (Pembroke): What are your principies?

Mr. Hattersley: I hear the hon. Member for Pembroke (Mr. Bennett) say, with the wit and intelligence that I expect from him, “What are your policies?" Under our policy, some Hong Kong residents would qualify immediately for entry into this country. Many of them were recommended for special consideration by the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs. Their problems have often been ignored by the Government. Indeed, all four special categories recommended by the Select Committee were ignored by the Government until 4-5 pm today. I am sure that the so-called rebels on the Tory Benches will feel that if they have achieved nothing else in their endeavours, they have got the widows of ex-service men into this country. They have achieved that at least because the Government ran away from them on that particular and progress would not have been made unless the Government had feared defeat this evening.

The Government have not gone far enough. We will offer immediate entry to other groups because they deserve and need it. The Select Committee referred to "non-ethnic Chinese who are mostly east African Asians who took refuge in the colony 20 years ago and who do not have full rights of residence in Hong Kong. In 1997, they will be stateless. Despite what the Home Secretary said this afternoon, the Government are offering them nothing. They do not qualify under the points scheme. We will grant them entry rights and I repeat that it is our published and established policy to allow the small number of war widows to come to this country. If I welcome nothing else that the Home Secretary said this afternoon, I weicome his concession on those widows and rejoice at his conversion.

We should also as the Select Committee proposes- accept that time spent as a bona fide student could be included in the qualifying period for naturalisation. As the Select Committee also recommended, we should use section 4(5) of the British Nationality Act 1981 generously.

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