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The United Kingdom and the Commonwealth

I hope that hon. Members will bear with me, because I shall address the House without notes on an issue that I have been considering for some time. Before doing so, however, I want to pick up two points. The hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) mentioned overseas territories and Remembrance Sunday. I know that I speak for my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle)—he would have liked to attend this debate, but he has an overriding engagement in his constituency—when I say that it is churlish and silly of the Government not to grant the representatives of the overseas territories the right to lay wreaths on Remembrance Sunday. If the Minister gets her people to look into this, she will find that the London representative of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland used to lay a wreath. It was only after the federation broke up and Rhodesia declared independence that the Foreign Office started to lay a wreath on behalf of that territory. Putting aside the franchise issue, Gibraltar and Bermuda certainly have the same constitutional status as the old Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Constitutional status should be extended to all 14 or 15 other overseas territories, if they so wish, but Gibraltar and Bermuda have contributed so much to our armed forces and so on that they should certainly have it. It is silly for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to hold so resolutely to its position. To elaborate on my earlier intervention, Ireland's constitution and citizenship rights mean that people with parents or grandparents born before 1949 in any of the Republic's 32 counties can claim Irish citizenship, even if those forebears moved to New Zealand, Australia or other Commonwealth states such as Canada and those in the Caribbean. However, the fact that the Irish Republic and the UK share a common status means that the descendants whom I have mentioned can come to London to work or even get elected to this Parliament. My central point, however, picks up on something that the hon. Member for Mid-Norfolk (Mr. Simpson) said earlier about the Irish Republic. Some hon. Members have said that Madagascar should join the Commonwealth, and I am one of those looking forward to Pakistan's return to the fold, but the great country of Ireland was one of the members of the original organisation and many Irish statesman contributed to what is now our modern Commonwealth. I did not want to interrupt the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) earlier, but it is worth remembering that, although the Queen is head of the Commonwealth, the overwhelming majority of member countries are republics. That is significant when it comes to inviting Ireland to rejoin and fill its empty chair. The Queen is the Head of State for some Commonwealth countries, but that should not be confused with her status as head of the Commonwealth. Who was the architect of that concept? Amazingly, it was Eamon de Valera. People often forget that he had the idea of countries belonging to an external association within the empire. His ““Document No. 2”” of 1921 made it clear that he was prepared to accept George V as the head of that association, but that he wanted Ireland to be a republic. That idea was subsequently swept aside. The Costello Government finally took Ireland out of the Commonwealth in 1948—the relevant legislation came into force in 1949—but it was in that period that the Indian Republic was accommodated and invited to enter the Commonwealth for the first time. Most Commonwealth states are republics, so it is clear that Eamon de Valera's concept of a family of nations was prophetic. The Commonwealth that ultimately emerged did not belong to Britain; it was mutually shared and owned by its members, exactly as de Valera had envisaged. In the Irish Free State of the 1920s and 1930s, Patrick McGilligan, the external affairs Minister, Desmond FitzGerald, the father of Garret FitzGerald, and Kevin O'Higgins were responsible for driving much of the business of the Dominion Prime Ministers' conferences of the period. They were the architects of what became known as the statute of Westminster, in which the charters of independence for Australia, New Zealand and the other countries that maintain the monarchical tradition have their roots. The people who negotiated Dominion status in 1921 and 1922 were rooted in Ireland's republican tradition, and they helped to forge so much of today's Commonwealth tradition. When the hon. Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) rightly referred to the Anzac contribution in two world wars and other conflicts, I could not help but reflect on the fact that many of the people in the British armed forces who fought for our freedom were drawn from what we know nowadays as the Irish Republic. Indeed, if we look at the wall behind the Serjeant at Arms, we can see the red crest of Willie Redmond—a Member of the House of Commons and the oldest British officer killed on the western front. He was a proud patriot and an Irish nationalist, but he is remembered here. He represents thousands of others who fought in our armed forces, even in what is known in Ireland as the emergency—world war two—when about 50,000 Irish people were in our armed forces and merchant marine. The Irish are everywhere in the old Commonwealth and other parts of it; the Irish tradition is everywhere. I am disappointed that in the past 11 years neither the Major Government nor the Labour Government realised that we should address the wrong that is Ireland's omission from the Commonwealth. The reply from successive Governments to my parliamentary questions has been that it is for Ireland to apply. That is disingenuous; it is not fraternal. We should tell Ireland that we want it to occupy the chair that it vacated. The best way to achieve that would be for the Prime Ministers of some of the big players, such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Jamaica, to take the initiative with the Taoiseach. They should say, ““This is no longer the British Commonwealth. Of course, its genesis is in our common history, but now it is a mutual society of nations owned by Australia, Jamaica, South Africa and many other African states, the Republic of India and the Republic of Pakistan, when its suspension is over. It is ours, why don't you join us?”” Why do I want Ireland in the Commonwealth? The Irish Republic has a proud record of internationalism. It is one of the first countries the UN Secretary-General calls on for quality peacekeeping troops. They have no imperial baggage, and he can rely on them. The Irish punch above their numerical weight in the European Union, where they are highly regarded. Ireland will probably provide the first president of the European Union—perhaps to the disappointment of some people in London. Ireland is a big player, but the one international organisation in which it does not participate is the Commonwealth. We have discussed the structures of the Commonwealth, but I would like to see an Irish team at the Commonwealth games, which is a rich festival of sport and, after the Olympics, one of the most important international sporting events. Irish membership of the Commonwealth would be a small but not insignificant factor in the positive developments in the island of Ireland over the past 12 months. It would be a further contributory factor to cover differences in traditions that have caused aggravation, but in which people also find their common identity. A small number of people in the Irish Republic identify with UK Britishness, which they cannot currently express. When I raised the subject in a Westminster Hall debate, I received letters from people in the Irish Republic who cannot have read my contribution, because they believe that the Commonwealth is the British Commonwealth. If anyone reading Hansard should trespass on my remarks today, I emphasise the point that the Commonwealth is not the British Commonwealth; it is owned by all the other states, the majority of which are republics. We should take the initiative at CHOGM and discuss with other members whether Ireland's chair, which has been vacant since 1948, could be occupied once more. Actually, I do not think that Ireland left; it has been left in a sort of halfway house, because when the Costello Government declared the Irish Republic in 1948-49, this House enacted legislation that said that all citizens of the Irish Republic had citizenship rights equal to those of people from the United Kingdom, could stand for election to local authorities and to Parliament, and could take ministerial office. A number of people who identified themselves as Irish have served in that capacity in this place. That was the precursor to the concept of Irish people being Commonwealth citizens, because the concept did not exist at that stage. Our franchise is extended to United Kingdom people, citizens of the Irish Republic and Commonwealth citizens, who have the full franchise here and can be elected to the House—I believe that Commonwealth citizens have been Ministers. I urge the Minister to go back to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and ask for a proper brief. If she were to ask, ““Is anything in the historical record that Mackinlay outlined incorrectly?”” the answer would be no—what I have said is absolutely correct, because I have spent some time studying the subject. I think that she will conclude that it is appropriate for the Prime Minister to discuss the issue with the other Commonwealth Prime Ministers and Heads of Government to see whether the situation can be remedied.