Up to nine million people in the UK are at risk of having their British citizenship stripped, with people of colour 12 times more likely to be affected than their white counterparts, according to a new report.
The findings, published by the Runnymede Trust and Reprieve, have renewed criticism that current laws and government practices have created a two-tier system of citizenship, which disproportionately targets minority communities — especially Muslims.
Drawing on updated census data, the Annual Population Survey and Home Office parental records, the research estimates that around 13% of the UK population is vulnerable to citizenship deprivation.
The analysis reveals stark racial disparities: three in five people of colour could be stripped of their citizenship, compared with just one in twenty white Britons.
Those most at risk include 62% of Black British people, 60% of Asian British people, and 62% of people categorised as ‘Other’ ethnicity, compared with just 5% of White British people.
Under current law, any British citizen with dual nationality can be stripped of citizenship. Naturalised Britons may also be deprived of their status if the Home Secretary has “reasonable grounds” to believe they could obtain another nationality — even if they have never held or claimed one.
In practice, these powers have been used against individuals with weak or non-existent links to another country, leaving some effectively stateless.
The report says the vast majority of those deprived are Muslim people with South Asian, Middle Eastern or North African heritage.
“Chilling undercurrent”
Shabna Begum, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, said the findings exposed a “chilling undercurrent” in the Home Office’s use of citizenship powers.
“Just like the legislation which caused the Windrush Scandal, there are no effective checks to prevent these powers being used widely,” she said.
“Citizenship is a right, not a privilege. Yet successive governments are advancing a two-tiered approach to citizenship, setting a dangerous precedent that someone’s citizenship can be removed on ‘good’ or ‘bad’ behaviour, with the actual operation of it being most impactful on people of colour.
“How has our democracy become so degraded that this is not treated with the alarm that it should?”
Maya Foa, chief executive of Reprieve, warned that recent legislative changes had expanded what she described as “extreme and secretive” powers.
“With Reform leading in the polls, the nine million people whose rights could be taken away by the next Home Secretary have every reason to be worried,” she said.
“Treating people with a connection to another country as second class citizens is an affront to the foundational British principle of equality before the law. We are British, not Brit-ish. These discriminatory powers must be abolished.”
Citizenship deprivation
The report highlights how the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 allows the Home Secretary to strip citizenship without notifying the individual. Legislation passed recently means citizenship is not restored even when a court rules the deprivation unlawful, until all government appeals are exhausted — a process that can take years.
The UK’s use of citizenship deprivation marks a sharp departure from post-war European norms. Between 1973 and 2002, the UK stripped citizenship only in cases of fraud.
Since 2010, however, more than 200 people have lost their citizenship on “public good” grounds. During that period, only Bahrain and Nicaragua have used such powers more extensively, and no other G20 country engages in citizenship stripping at comparable levels.
In response to the findings, the Runnymede Trust and Reprieve are calling for an immediate moratorium on citizenship deprivation for “public good” reasons, the repeal of Section 40(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981, and the restoration of citizenship to those stripped under these powers.
