New Clause 2 - Abandoned infants
British Overseas Territories Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Ben Bradshaw (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Exeter, Labour)
I can reassure the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Mr. Spring). It is right that abandoned infants and foundlings who are discovered should have the right to British overseas territory citizenship and in this case British citizenship under the Bill. That right would not extend to relatives who subsequently popped up; indeed, if parents, guardians or relatives did so and it was then discovered that the child had no right to British citizenship because the parents were not British overseas territory citizens or British citizens, the British citizenship that had been conveyed on that child could be removed.
An impact of the new clause would be to deny the right of a foundling or child then to confer British overseas territory citizenship or British citizenship on their own offspring, which I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would not want. I therefore ask him to withdraw the proposal.