Passport controls

I’m also struggling with why he chooses to misrepresent the position of the Scottish Government on citizenship.

He quotes page 273, which states that British citizens habitually resident in Scotland and British citizens born in Scotland but living outside of Scotland will have the right to Scottish citizenship and the right to hold a Scottish passport.

But where does it say that the people Roger Cartwright refers to will be stripped of their UK citizenship? He quotes 500,000 people who will have Scottish citizenship imposed on them.

He does not explain who these people are, but the Scottish  Government has a position of  allowed dual nationality and that is a world apart from the removal of nationality.

Mr Cartwright also says 800,000 Scots working in the rest of the UK will be stripped of their UK nationality. The Scotsman puts this figure at 400,000, but setting aside the small matter of the difference in numbers, how can the Scottish Government remove UK nationality from these people?

He also skips page 272 of the white paper, which states: “The UK allows dual or multiple citizenship for British citizens. If a British citizen acquires citizenship and a passport for another country, this does not affect their British citizenship, right to hold a British passport or right to live in the UK.

“The Scottish Government will also allow dual citizenship. It will be for the rest of the UK to decide whether it allows dual UK/Scottish citizenship, but we expect the normal rules to apply.”

Page 272 states the categories noted above will have the right to acquire a Scottish passport “but there will be no requirement to hold one”. I cannot see how the Scottish Government can force people here to renounce their UK citizenship or remove it from Scots living outside Scotland.

Douglas Turner

Derby Street

Edinburgh