Member

What possible justification might the Minister deploy to justify the truncation of United Kingdom citizenship in Northern Ireland and the creation of the two-tier citizenship to which these regulations testify? That is, the full citizenship of the UK citizen in GB who can stand for election to make all the laws to which they are subject, and the partial citizenship of UK citizens in Northern Ireland who are now worthy of the right to stand for election to make only some of the laws to which they are subject. There are two potential responses, but the difficulty is that, as we study them, we find that they turn from being defences of the Government’s position into a further indictment of it. One possible line of defence is that, while it would normally be indefensible that anyone should be encouraged to give up their citizenship to subject themselves to legislators who are not accountable to them, it is justified in this particular case because of 10 December: this is the proposition that the Government asked the MLAs to support.