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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Reform person says I'm not necessarily British although born in UK. How can I tell?

136 replies

PaperBlueCornflower · 27/01/2026 18:43

How can I tell if I and my children are British according to their definition?

If I might turn out not to be, and DS might turn out not to be could I be thrown out? Where to?

AIBU to be puzzled and a bit worried?

After all a lot of people seem to think Reform will be the next government.

OP posts:
StarlightRobot · 27/01/2026 19:43

I think it’s a lack of understanding of basic vocabulary and grammar- really bugs me!

StarlightRobot · 27/01/2026 19:42

@Catabogus that may be how citizenship works, but the word British does not necessarily refer to citizenship. The word ‘British’ literally means from Great Britain.

StarlightRobot · 27/01/2026 19:40

Qualifying for citizenship is a different thing. I can see that a person could technically, under specific rules, be British born and therefore a British person, but not meet whatever citizenship test a government has set. I don’t think referring to someone as British always needs to be a reference to citizenship. It is about nationality. It is an adjective describing where a person is from.

Catabogus · 27/01/2026 19:38

StarlightRobot · 27/01/2026 19:36

Of course you are British is you are born in Great Britain, that would be your nationality, ie nation of birth.

I was born in Australia, but my parents weren’t. That makes me Australian and no one would ever deny that!

Just like anyone born in America
is American.

I could go on… but I won’t

This isn’t how it works. Otherwise pregnant women could travel to the UK to have their children just so that their babies would be British. In reality it also depends on parents’ status.

Catabogus · 27/01/2026 19:37

BoyHowdy · 27/01/2026 19:27

China doesn’t have automatic birthright citizenship. Different countries vary. I’m not sure if that’s why you were asking that question…

Show quote history

Nor does Britain! Most countries don’t in fact - most require a parent to be a citizen, for example.

StarlightRobot · 27/01/2026 19:36

Of course you are British is you are born in Great Britain, that would be your nationality, ie nation of birth.

I was born in Australia, but my parents weren’t. That makes me Australian and no one would ever deny that!

Just like anyone born in America
is American.

I could go on… but I won’t

Catabogus · 27/01/2026 19:35

DamnUserName21 · 27/01/2026 19:21

Per the above recommended govt site:

Born in the UK or a British colony before 1 January 1983

You’re usually a British citizen automatically if you were born in the UK.

There are 3 exceptions. You will not be a British citizen if:

your father was a diplomat working for a foreign country

your mother was a diplomat working for a foreign country and you were born on or after 10 April 1968

your father was an ‘enemy alien in occupation’ in the Channel Islands during World War 2

Wow! Does point 3 here imply that, even if your mother was a British citizen in the Channel Islands at the time, you wouldn’t be British if your father was an occupying German soldier? What about - for example - local women who were raped?

Original poster
PaperBlueCornflower · 27/01/2026 19:34

Everydayimhuffling · 27/01/2026 19:31

I hate Marmite and marmalade, and I wasn't born here. My parents are British citizens, though, and I have a British passport. I'm white, so people don't mostly notice that I don't fit their rules until I point it out to them. I really hope Reform don't get in.

Thank you for posting that.

OP posts:
Everydayimhuffling · 27/01/2026 19:31

I hate Marmite and marmalade, and I wasn't born here. My parents are British citizens, though, and I have a British passport. I'm white, so people don't mostly notice that I don't fit their rules until I point it out to them. I really hope Reform don't get in.

Original poster
PaperBlueCornflower · 27/01/2026 19:29

Moonmelodies · 27/01/2026 19:26

If you were born in China would you be Chinese?

If you were born in a stable would you be a horse?

If you were born female in China during the one child policy perhaps no worries about nationality.

OP posts:
BoyHowdy · 27/01/2026 19:27

Moonmelodies · 27/01/2026 19:26

If you were born in China would you be Chinese?

China doesn’t have automatic birthright citizenship. Different countries vary. I’m not sure if that’s why you were asking that question…

Moonmelodies · 27/01/2026 19:26

If you were born in China would you be Chinese?

Charlize43 · 27/01/2026 19:25

Settled status, ILR?

One of the contract jobs I worked, I handled a lot of passports and processed a lot of share codes (now eVisas) and I was surprised to see that so many people had settled status, ILR. Very Interesting migration trajectories of birth countries like Sierra Leone, Ghana, Guinea Brisseau, Bangladesh, but holding Spanish, Italian & Portuguese passports and then finding on processing their share codes that they now had Settled status ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain) in the UK.

Does anyone know the percentage of people is of Settled Status ILR now in the UK? I did seem like a surprisingly high number of the candidates that I processed that had it.

BoyHowdy · 27/01/2026 19:25

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 27/01/2026 19:04

I guess you are thinking we are going to go exactly the same way as the US. We won’t. We have a massive human rights legal system here, so there’s no way they would be able to push through the kind of policies Trump has pushed through. Stop worrying.

That’s a bit naïve. The issue with Trump is that he’s not following the law.

StandFirm · 27/01/2026 19:21

It's the ethnic cleansing bullshit being peddled by the fascists in the US and creeping over here. That rhetoric is what's not British. FFS.

JohnBullshit · 27/01/2026 19:21

I thought this post would be about the Goodwin tosser. I hope people begin to see sense. It doesn't seem like the kind of constituency where he'd have a hope, but God knows plenty of people are hanging on to vague promises about making Britain all better, just like when they were kids and could play on concrete and broken glass without a care in the world.
I have quite recent forebears on both sides of my family who weren't British and weren't born in the UK. Twentieth century arrivals. I'm a British citizen, and so were my parents. We are white though, so funnily enough nobody tells us to go back where we came from.

DamnUserName21 · 27/01/2026 19:21

Per the above recommended govt site:

Born in the UK or a British colony before 1 January 1983

You’re usually a British citizen automatically if you were born in the UK.

There are 3 exceptions. You will not be a British citizen if:

your father was a diplomat working for a foreign country

your mother was a diplomat working for a foreign country and you were born on or after 10 April 1968

your father was an ‘enemy alien in occupation’ in the Channel Islands during World War 2

Original poster
PaperBlueCornflower · 27/01/2026 19:19

ExtraOnions · 27/01/2026 19:08

Have you ever been Morris Dancing ?

Do you know what a May Pole is for ?

Have you shinned up any lampposts recently ?

Who do you support at Cricket ?

I could be in trouble here. Can I substitute Wassailing for Morris Dancing?

Did Maypole at Primary school (before safety guidelines came in, probably would have been lethal if it fell over. Also In and Out the Dusty Bluebells).

Shinning up any kind of post a bit out of my skill set.

Cricket, very tricky, not really a sports fan (see earlier non TV watching).

OP posts:
Catterbat · 27/01/2026 19:17

InterestedDad37 · 27/01/2026 18:51

They may get in, which I can't believe I'm actually writing, but they won't last 5 minutes, and Brits will simply not accept any attempts at authoritarianism - we'll just laugh in their faces, and riot them out of town 👍

Pfft you’re joking aren’t you? We’ll just roll over and take it like we always do.

Query12 · 27/01/2026 19:14

StarlightRobot · 27/01/2026 19:12

If you are a British citizen then you are naturalised British, regardless of where you were born. If you were born here, you are British because you were born in Great Britain. The man is an idiot but unfortunately idiots may vote for him.

That is not correct. You can be born in the UK and not be British.

IncompleteSenten · 27/01/2026 19:13

Do you think they'll offer us fifty grand to fuck off like the bnp said they would?

If thats per person, thats 200,000 which would set us up nicely in kenya. I might take the bastards up on it.

StarlightRobot · 27/01/2026 19:12

If you are a British citizen then you are naturalised British, regardless of where you were born. If you were born here, you are British because you were born in Great Britain. The man is an idiot but unfortunately idiots may vote for him.

Query12 · 27/01/2026 19:12

https://www.gov.uk/British-citizenship go to the second heading for the current situation

Original poster
PaperBlueCornflower · 27/01/2026 19:12

Ohthatsabitshit · 27/01/2026 19:09

Where you born after 1984?

No

OP posts:
Original poster
PaperBlueCornflower · 27/01/2026 19:11

DamnUserName21 · 27/01/2026 18:50

What was the immigration status of your parent's when you were born? They need to have ILR, I believe, at the time of your birth for you to have British citizenship.

There is no automatic British citizenship at birth like the US.

I'm not sure for the one who wasn't born here, they arrived quite a long time ago when the rules were different. I wonder how I could find out.

OP posts: