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

[PaperBlueCornflower]

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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

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

I’m Irish, born in Ireland, moved here when I was 14. I don’t have a British passport, but have lived here for nearly 20 years. My kids have two passports, DH is born British with British Passport. Are my parents and I at risk of deportation if Reform get in? Should I be seeking Citizenship?

So you would describe Joanna Lumley as Indian?

When were you born? And where? Chat gpt says

If you were born on or after 1 January 1983
You’re only automatically a British citizen if at least one parent was:

• a British citizen, or
• settled in the UK at the time (had indefinite leave to remain, permanent residence, or later “settled status”).

If neither parent met those conditions, being born in the UK by itself isn’t enough. If you were born before 1 January 1983 Then yes — birth in the UK usually did automatically make you a British citizen (with a few exceptions).

A few people have posted the link for you to check above and hopefully that gives you the answer you are after. However please please regularise your status so that you don’t end up in a windrush type situation because these processes are all just getting more expensive and complicated year on year.

That’s quite a niche definition! I’m not sure I have a lack of understanding of basic vocabulary to be using “British”, of a person, to mean having British citizenship.

Sadly it probably depends on the colour of your skin. I'm a white person look very British but do not hold British passport. But everyone assumes I'm British because of my accent and colour of my skin. The Reform agenda is simply trying to evict those people they dont want around and that, very sadly, is pure racism. Nothing else.

My other half was born in Sudan to British parents. He is genetically and culturally English. They left when he was about four. Is he Sudanese?

She isn’t ethnically Indian, and I don’t think she identifies that way or wants to be described as Indian, so no I wouldn’t call her Indian. But I wouldn’t exclude anyone referring to themselves as of a particular country, their birth country, because their parents were born in another country. That would be pretty racist.

Otherwise, you can end up scenarios where people are excluded from having any nationality! In my case, for example, with parents from two different countries, myself born in Australia- if I hadn’t obtained a passport arguably would I have no nationality? That’s a silly argument.

What about the Norwegian footballer Erling Haaland, is he British?

ds Wasn’t born in the uk - but is British.

Wonder what their plans for him are?

He’s disabled so they’d probably ship him off to somewhere quite happily!

I've just answered my own question. OP, If you were born in the UK, you have nothing to worry about but I think Reform were looking at trying to reverse the 4 million who entered under the EU Settlement Scheme as it seems that the UK is the ultimate destination for migrants entering through Europe, and claiming EU citizenship.

In recent months, there has been increasing discussion of migrant settlement, with opposition parties proposing to change the rules for those who currently hold indefinite leave to remain (ILR). The precise number of non-EU citizens with settlement is not known, but our estimates suggest it was likely to have been between 622,000 and 820,000 at the end of 2024. These estimates do not include the approximately 4 million EU citizens who were living in the UK before January 2021 and hold settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.

Before anyone accuses me of being racist or xenophobic, my heritage is French / English.

My French family laugh and say the British shot themselves in the foot with Brexit because now the UK is seen as the dumping for non-European migrants. I've heard French friends jokingly say, we'll just drop a few inflatable boats off at Calais (the French can be quite xenophobic).

I, despite not wanting to be, am a british citizen because I was born there in the 1960's. I know they changed the rules at some stage so being born there is not enough but if your parent was born there prior to that change (unless it was your father and your parents weren't married at the time) then you wouls have been born to a british parent in the UK so therefor would also be british.

But reading the article you linked to, he's not saying they are not british, he's saying they are not "the right kind of british". So basically, plain old racism.

@bestchooseanother if he wanted to call himself Sudanese of course he could, just like I have known people born in Kenya with white British parents referring to themselves as Kenyan.

Likewise, I would have no issue describing a person born in the UK with Chinese born parents as British. Of course they would be British, having been British born.

Honestly I think there is a ton of racism here- you don’t need ethnic roots to describe yourself as British, or Australian (in my case) or from whatever country you are from.

I imagine that's what Americans said before ICE wandered on down.