PETITIONOpenPetition · petition.parliament.uk
Automatically grant UK citizenship to people affected by historical unfairness
We ask the UK Government to change UK nationality law to automatically grant UK citizenship to people who may have not been granted UK citizenship based on whether their British parent was their mother or father.
Last fetched 03 May 2026 · petition.parliament.uk
Signatures
34
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 34/10,000
Debate threshold (100,000) · 34/100,000
Background
Before 1983, British fathers could usually pass citizenship to children born abroad but British mothers often could not. Later reforms created application routes, but these are not automatic and may leave people disadvantaged. We ask the Government to legislate to ensure that UK citizenship is granted automatically to those who have been affected by this historic gender bias in UK nationality law.