Thank you for contacting me about Hong Kong Servicemen and EDM 88.
Ministers do not, by convention, sign any Early Day Motions, as doing so is likely to breach the Ministerial Code's rules on collective responsibility. However, let me make clear my gratitude for the service provided by former Hong Kong military personnel. Under current legislation, the only people who have the right to abode are British citizens and some Commonwealth citizens who secured the right before the law changed in 1983. It has been a long-established practice in British nationality law for British nationality to be lost when a country ceases to be a UK territory. That has been the case since 1949, when countries such as Australia and Canada ceased to be colonies for the purpose of nationality law.
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