One rule for the elites and another for us

WE heard again this week ( Letters, 1 January) that Stanley Johnson has applied for French citizenship, to which he is entitled as his mother was born in France and his grandmother was French.

How very lucky for him, but even luckier for his son Boris, who will also be able to apply for it and to maintain the right to live, work, travel and study freely within the EU for himself and his many children, despite having removed that privilege from the rest of us.

We know that Nigel Farage also made an application for German citizenship through his German ex-wife, and that his two children hold both British and German passports. Jacob Rees Mogg has set up a branch of his business, Somerset Capital, in Ireland in order to have continued access to Europe after Brexit, and Nigel Lawson, former Chair of the Vote Leave campaign, also applied for French residency. Billionaire hedge fund managers and large Tory party donors Alan Howard and Jeremy Isaacs both secured Cypriot residency through the golden passport scheme, which costs a minimum of 2 million euros but does not require the applicant to live in Cyprus. Yet again it feels as if there is one rule for the wealthy elites and another for the rest of us.

Sally Baldwin Thorverton, Devon