Teresa May can take away your citizenship !

When I read this morning about the last minute government amendment to remove UK citizenship from terrorists, I immediately thought of the UN Convention on Reduction of Statelessness 1961 under which the UK can remove citizenship on grounds that a person "conducted himself in a manner seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the State;".  The UK took advantage of a provision in the convention which allows this as long as the state concerned specified it at the time of signing the convention.   However, Article 8.4 of the convention requires a right to a fair hearing by a court or other independent body.  The government amendment does not provide for this.  There is a further Labour amendment which does.

  

People may think, "What the hell ? They're terrorists. Kick 'em out" but we do have a tradition of fair trials in this country.  Teresa May is giving herself the power to remove someone's citizenship and their right to a fair trial because she is satisfied "... that the deprivation is conducive to the public good because the person, while having that citizenship status, has conducted him or herself in a manner which is seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom, any of the Islands, or any British overseas territory."

Can any Liberal agree that a government minister acting alone can decide that an individual is no longer a citizen, without any judicial proceeding whatever ?

Tails lash at Tory Conference.

Claws were out at the Tory Conference as Teresa May and Ken Clarke clashed over the Home Secretary's claim that courts applying the ECHR's Article 8 on family life allowed an illegal immigrant to stay in the UK because he had a cat. May has now admitted that this was not true. The judge was ruling on the veracity of the man's relationship with his partner, which was partly evidenced by the joint purchase of a cat.

The Guardian report says "May's speech was not shown to Clarke. In common with conference speeches by all cabinet minsters, it was cleared with the "quad" committee of David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne and Danny Alexander.". Come on Nick and Danny ! Wake up and smell the Tories. Don't leave the defence of the ECHR to Ken Clarke alone.