The Windrush scandal and the imperiled vision of a truly global Britain

SIR – It is not only when it comes to the unethical treatment of the Windrush generation (report, April 28) that British citizenship rules are a disgrace.

The key to a successful Brexit will be increasing global trade. For this, it is vital that bright young British managers are motivated to spend years abroad. Yet their reward will be to be disenfranchised, as I was after working for 15 years in the Middle East.

My son, who was born in Jeddah and works in the United Arab Emirates, has just flown to London with his pregnant wife to ensure that the child has British citizenship. The baby would otherwise be deprived of it, even though my son is British and has spent most of his life in the UK.

Is it any wonder internationalist Brexiteers are fearful that this incompetent Government will erode all the potential benefits of Brexit? Rodney G James

Brasschaat, Antwerp, Belgium

SIR – Perhaps it is time for the Home Office to be reminded that the main purpose of the Passport Office is to issue passports, not to refuse them. John Blake

Winchester, Hampshire

SIR – Amber Rudd may not have covered herself in glory in the past week, but does anyone really believe that the Home Office would be in better shape with Diane Abbott in charge? Mark Hudson

Ashford, Kent

SIR – It is hard to believe that anyone born in the United Kingdom, to parents and grandparents who were also born in the UK, should be told that he or she is not a British citizen.

That, however, was the fate of many people who were born in what is now the Irish Republic but which, at the time of their birth, was as much part of the United Kingdom as Manchester is.

When 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland seceded from the UK and were about to leave the Commonwealth, many of these people were deprived of their British status unless they proactively sought to retain it. I vividly recall my mother’s disappointment in the Eighties when she opened the envelope containing the passport for which she had applied, and read: “British Subject without Citizenship”.

These people’s plight was not helped by legislative squabbling between the newly independent Ireland and Westminster, which, even as late as 1942, was claiming that it had the right to conscript Irishmen living in Britain. The British Nationality Act 1948 resolved the matter by putting people like my mother in no better position than any outsider seeking citizenship.

It may be of some comfort to Amber Rudd to know that bungling of these matters is nothing new. An incorrect date inserted into the 1948 Act had the unintended consequence of depriving people living in Northern Ireland of British citizenship and assuming they were Irish citizens. I do not know if any heads rolled as a result. The error was corrected the following year. Ann O’brien

Leeds, West Yorkshire