This week, I was drawn for my first ever Prime Minister’s Question and had the opportunity to push Boris Johnson on the issue of high citizenship fees.  There are hundreds of thousands of children like the Prime Minister (born abroad) or like me (born in the UK to Ghanaian parents), who are entitled to British citizenship but priced out by high fees – at the time of writing, £1012. 

As a consequence of this, these children face barriers to getting a job, going to university, renting a home, using the NHS and opening a bank account. With the Government currently making a 60% profit on application fees, it’s clear there is some room to improve this situation and stop this from happening, whether by reducing these fees, or even getting rid of citizenship fees altogether for people born to UK parents abroad or those raised in the UK. 

When I met with Lambeth Citizens in the General Election of 2019, we discussed the issue of citizenship fees and I promised to raise this in Parliament. I’m delighted I was able to follow through on this and look forwards to following up on the Prime Minister’s commitment to look into this.