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Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con): If, as the hon. Gentleman says, those communities are of long standing, and if, as he is implying, they have some great loyalty to the United Kingdom and he wishes them to be able to work within our Government, why can they not simply take British nationality?
Mr. Dismore: The first answer is that, unfortunately, it takes some time to acquire British nationality. Equally, some might not wish to do so—
Mr. Dismore: Some people may wish, in the long run, to return to their own countries—but if we are serious about nation building in states that we are trying to help, what better way could there be of helping that process than training people, in our civil service, how to do the job properly and effectively, so that when they return to their own country they will have that great experience of the British civil service and be able to help to create a civil service, and a democratic state, overseas. That is one example of why people may not want to take British nationality.
A Turkish Cypriot, for example, is eligible for a non-restricted post, but a Turk is not. The notorious Abu Hamza, the fundamentalist cleric who most people think should be kicked out of this country, if not put in jail, has UK nationality—at least, until the Home Secretary's efforts to remove his nationality come to fruition—and theoretically could be employed in any post, although I doubt whether he would want to apply or would stand much chance of passing the interview.
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By contrast, an American national widow of a British victim of 11 September would be entirely excluded from Government employment.
In our country, some 850,000 residents of working age are not UK, Commonwealth or EEA citizens, and are thus excluded entirely. In London, 350,000 people—9 per cent. of the population of working age—are entirely excluded, not just from the higher echelons, but from even applying for the most junior social security clerk's job. No wonder we have difficulty filling civil service jobs in the capital, when so many of my fellow Londoners are entirely out of the equation.
My Bill tackles these bizarre and discriminatory anomalies by sweeping away the existing complex interlocking legislation, and replacing it with a simple amendment to the Act of Settlement, so as not to prohibit the employment of any person in any civil capacity under the Crown, while at the same time empowering Ministers to make rules in respect of nationality requirements for certain categories of post, which I envisage to be those for which it is clearly necessary, and in the national interest, for the job to be reserved for a UK national. Those would account for about 10 per cent., not 2 per cent, of posts. It is expected that the Bill would open up 90 per cent. of posts to selection on merit, regardless of nationality, which would enable us to build a civil service that reflects the diversity of the society that it serves.
Since last year, support for my proposals has grown. In their evidence to the Public Administration Committee, the civil service trade unions said:
"For the record we should state that the present Civil Service Nationality Rules are blatantly discriminatory against people from the Irish Republic and the Commonwealth. This is not a situation which reflects well on the Government or the Civil Service and completely flies in the face of efforts to develop a diverse Civil Service which represents the whole community it serves and one which endeavours to provide equality of opportunity to all its staff."
In its first report of this Session, the Public Administration Committee—this was a unanimous decision of the Committee, including its Conservative members—said:
"This would be a much-needed reform and one that has long been called for"
"to be welcomed and such provision should be included in primary legislation to be introduced when Parliamentary time allows."
Brian White (Milton Keynes, North-East) (Lab): Is my hon. Friend aware that when the Public Administration Committee was examining the Civil Service Bill, the only part that had unanimous support was the bit that he is talking about?
Mr. Dismore: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for pointing that out, and I hope that it will be reflected in whatever transpires later today.
The Commission for Racial Equality fully backs the Bill, and I shall be very interested to see what position the official Opposition adopt, because my understanding is that they support the position behind the measure, in that they have put forward their own civil service Bill, based on the Select Committee report, and it includes the proposals in my Bill. It would be extremely anomalous if they were to try to defeat my Bill while promoting similar provisions in their own Bill.
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The time has come to deal with this long-standing anomaly. The time has come for progress, and for making a civil service that reflects our society, while protecting the national interest. So I hope that my Bill will be able to make progress today.
10.56 am
Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con): I congratulate the hon. Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore) on finally getting his Bill into a position where it would seem to stand a chance of making progress. He has been persistent, and, as we know, he is very skilful both with private Members' Bills and with Friday business. However, his skill is usually deployed in another direction. He is a well known assassin of private Members' Bills, so he and I will both enjoy the irony that today he has finally got his sad little Bill into a position where it stands some chance of making progress.
To dwell for a moment on the provenance of the Bill, the really interesting aspect, which I am sure will not have escaped the hon. Gentleman, is that the only reason why his Bill is in this position today is that on every previous Friday devoted to private Members' Bills this Session, other private Members' Bills have been ruthlessly assassinated by none other than the Government. I have checked the record for all eight such Fridays to date, and on six occasions Bills were talked out by Ministers, on one occasion by the hon. Gentleman's hon. Friend the Member for Greenock and Inverclyde (David Cairns), and—surprise, surprise—on the other occasion by the hon. Gentleman himself.
The hon. Gentleman comes before us with his little Bill, expecting us to give it a fair wind, when he himself has legendary skill in seeing off other private Members' Bills, so I hope that the House will not feel any obligation or necessity to be over-sympathetic to him today. I am certainly not in that position, and I shall explain why—although not at great length; that will not be necessary, because we shall return to the Bill another day, when I shall be able to deal with it in much greater detail.
On this occasion, however, I shall simply explain why I shall not support the Bill, either today or on any other occasion. My main problem with it is not just the principle—to which I am opposed—that aliens should be allowed into the inner workings of our Government, although that does strike me as a rather odd concept, but the fact that that in itself could be seen as challenging those rather narrow old-fashioned concepts of nationhood and national sovereignty. The key to those, I would have thought, is a sense of loyalty to the nation and of identity with it.
Brian White: In that case, why did the right hon. Gentleman not take the opportunity to remove from our civil service the aliens who had been there from 1919 onwards?
Mr. Forth:
Sadly, I was not around in 1919. I have the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919 in my hand. The hon. Member for Milton Keynes, North-East (Brian White) will not be surprised to hear that we shall dwell on it—not at length, but at a canter. I would have supported the 1919 Act had I been a Member at that time, because it is excellent. I shall argue that we should
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not disturb its excellent provisions, as they are as valid today as they were then. That will be part of my deliberations and meanderings today. However, let me not be diverted from the opening groundwork for my remarks.
I have no hesitation in making a point about nationhood, national identity and all that goes with it because there is an insidious process at work. The hon. Member for Hendon was typically open about it when he said that, in this modern world, we must embrace people of all sorts of nationalities—aliens and all—take them to our collective bosoms and invite them into the inner workings of our Government. Even if one believes in multiculturalism—incidentally, I do not—that is several steps too far. It is one thing to welcome people to this country, another to allow them to settle here and absorb our culture and habits, and, indeed, to give them, in due time, indefinite leave to remain—leading on, if they wish, to an application for British nationality. Those matters are well established and perfectly proper. Indeed, they allow us and them the opportunity properly to explore their commitment to this country and to demonstrate that their loyalties lie with this country rather than that from which they chose to come.
If, as the hon. Gentleman said, such people choose freely to retain their other nationality while living here, thus denying themselves the right, for example, to vote, it is odd to argue that, in spite of their signalling the fact that their loyalties remain elsewhere, we should nevertheless allow them into our governmental process. At this, of all times, the argument appears bizarre. Tragically, in the early 21st century, we face terrorism, infiltration into our society and others, subversion of our society, and threats to our society by people who, admittedly and sadly, are sometimes our own citizens, but are all too often citizens of other lands. To try to change such a long-standing provision at this of all times strikes me, to put it mildly, as counter-intuitive.
History and current circumstances suggest that we should consider strengthening the provisions if necessary, rather than the other way around. Fortunately, through the wonderful foresight and political determination of our forebears, we have the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act 1919 to protect us. There was no political correctness back then. They were the glorious days when people could speak their minds without fear of someone feeling their collar, and do what they believed to be right without looking over their shoulders and worrying about who would accuse them of racism, xenophobia, fascism or any other trendy accusation of the day.
In 1919, in the aftermath of the first war, our forebears had the eminent good sense to pass the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Act, of which section 6 states:
"After the passing of this Act no alien shall be appointed to any office or place in the Civil Service of the state."
What wonderfully elegant and clear language. I wish that we had the same today instead of the convoluted nonsense that we often have to put up with. If we have time, we shall deal with an example in one of the succeeding Bills—I believe that it is the next measure that we shall consider. It is so convoluted, pretentious and politically correct as to be positively untrue. I hope
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that I shall catch your eye then, Mr. Deputy Speaker—although your successor will probably be in the Chair—to express those views about that ill-begotten Bill.
The clarion words of 1919 make a simple, elegant statement, for which we should be grateful. We should not revisit the provision, albeit so many years later, when if anything things are worse than they were in 1919. Nowadays, there is much more free movement of peoples, thanks to the wonders of modern transport. There is much more of an idea of globality and multiculturalism, and we as a nation have seen fit to welcome into our society generations of people who originated elsewhere—but who are not yet welcome, thanks to the 1919 Act, into our Government.
I should have thought that anyone who supports the Bill would want to pause and reflect a moment. I am more than a little surprised that our security services have not approached me and others, begging us to oppose the Bill on the basis that, even on the most superficial consideration, it must make their job that much more difficult. At least at the moment we should be able to sleep in our beds at night in the secure knowledge that all sorts of suspicious aliens have not inveigled their way into our governmental system and into the civil service. I sincerely hope that the Bill will not be enacted and I shall strive, as ever, to that end. I have had modest success to date. Today may not be my day, but there will be another.
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