British Citizenship And Natural Justice

EDM number 737 in 1994-95, proposed by Max Madden on 06/03/1995.

That this House is bewildered at the refusal of a Home Office Minister to grant British citizenship to Ali and Mohammed Al-Fayed; believes both meet citizenship requirements having more than five years' residence in the United Kingdom, strong family links, intention to stay, ability to speak English, economic contribution to the country and no serious criminal convictions; notes the processing of their applications illustrates all that is wrong with the procedures, that is unacceptably long delays in decisions being taken, no requirement for full explanation for refusal to be given and no right of appeal against refusal; can only conclude that the decision to refuse the applications from the Al-Fayed brothers was motivated by political spite and malice; and trusts the bizarre and perverse decision will expedite reforms to the British citizenship application procedure so that decisions are taken in objective and open criteria within a reasonable time, and those refused are given detailed reasons and a right of independent appeal.

This motion has been signed by a total of 28 MPs.