First, Paddington Bear’s marmalade sandwiches were confiscated by UK Border Control.
Then, they chased him, detained him and eventually gave him a passport – though under the new immigration rules, he would not be getting one at all.
Despite being granted citizenship in 2024 – complete with a blue passport – the young bear from ‘darkest Peru’ would now find himself stranded and his asylum claim met with a shrug.
After all he has gone through, under the government’s latest immigration crackdown, the most famous – and let’s remember, fictional – refugee would not stand a chance of becoming a British citizen.
The Home Office’s good character guidance now states that an applicant will ‘normally’ be refused citizenship if they entered the country illegally.
And it does not matter how long they end up living in the UK or how they contribute to society.
It references those who arrive ‘having made a dangerous journey’, including those ‘travelling by small boat or concealed in a vehicle’.
Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy said the change was ‘counterproductive to the message that we want to send about being proud of our country and the role that it has played in supporting those fleeing persecution’.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme today: ‘This is not about whether we offer these people refuge, these people are people who can stay here already.
‘This is about people who are here, who are part of our communities.
‘I was incredibly proud over the last couple of months to work with one of my neighbours, who is a young man who fled Syria, who is now making a life here, has just got his degree, is contributing to our society, and has now got British citizenship. This process would deny that.
‘Essentially it would deny, well, frankly, Paddington. Paddington did the same thing.
‘He came by an irregular route, but we gave him sanctuary but would not give him a passport.’
In response to criticism of her comments, the MP subsequently posted on X, writing: ‘We did indeed give Paddington a passport.
‘We also gave Sir Mo Farah a knighthood and cheered him at the Olympics.’
It comes as Labour’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which scraps the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, passed its first hurdle in the Commons on Monday.
It will also introduce new criminal offences and hand counter terror-style powers to police and enforcement agencies to crack down on people smuggling gangs bringing migrants across the English Channel.
Creasy said she voted for the legislation because it was ‘important that we repeal the Rwanda legislation, the madness and the money that we spent on that scheme’.
She added that the change to Home Office guidance was ‘not part of that process’.
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