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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

My Lords, as the Minister said, we are talking about widows of war heroes. We are disagreeing only about the method by which we grant them a passport: whether it should be done as we suggest in this amendment or by the exercise of the discretion of the Home Secretary, as the Minister has said. He then went on to say that the Government are not prepared to amend the law to benefit this one small group of people—but we are talking about an amendment that has been put down by the Government. It is plain that in Clause 45 the Government are advocating that we change the wording in the Hong Kong (War Wives and Widows) Act: "““In section 1 of the Hong Kong (War Wives and Widows) Act 1996 … in subsection (1) … omit ‘and’””," and so on. We are suggesting leaving out those words so that the effect we want is achieved. In that way, the 85 year-old lady who has been in possession of a letter from the Home Secretary will be able, along with the 53 others who received it, to come to this country and get a British passport without further ado. The Minister is saying that even if this lady happens to have committed an offence, the Secretary of State will still exercise discretion, but we are putting this lady in the position of having to make the application and for this test to be applied. That is an indignity to which she should not be subjected. Obviously, we are not going to win the argument this afternoon, so with great regret, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 51 withdrawn. Clause 46 : Meaning of references to being in breach of immigration laws Amendment 52 not moved. Clause 48 : Common Travel Area Amendment 53 had been withdrawn from the Marshalled List.