Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how quickly a foreign national can gain British citizenship; what are the time spans involved in France, Italy, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands; and what assessment they have made of new citizens granted nationality in other European Union countries using that nationality to access the United Kingdom.

An individual naturalising as a British citizen is required to have been lawfully resident in the UK for a minimum of five years, with the last year of residence free of time restrictions, or three years if the spouse of a British citizen.

Every country within the EU has the right to decide its own citizenship laws, but we would object if another Member State operated its processes in a way that could lead to abuse of free movement rights. The Government is clear that EU citizens who benefit from the right to free movement must adhere to the responsibilities this brings with it. The Government does not tolerate the abuse of free movement rights and is working at a domestic level and with other member states to tackle such abuse.