Turpin Miller’s client, NG, was born in the UK in 2004 to a married French couple. Prior to NG’s birth, his father had been resident and worked in the UK for over two years before he had to cease work due to a heart condition.
Because of this factual history, which he had previously evidenced to the Home Office by evidence from NG’s father’s historic HMRC records and health records, NG was born a British citizen under s1(1)(b) of the British Nationality Act 1981, as his father was settled in the UK (within the definition at s50(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981) under Article 2 EEC Regulation 1251/70:
“1. The following shall have the right to remain permanently in the territory of a Member State:
…
(b) a worker who, having resided continuously in the territory of that State for more than two years, ceases to work there as an employed person as a result of permanent incapacity to work. If such incapacity is the result of an accident at work or an occupational disease entitling him to a pension for which an institution of that State is entirely or partially responsible, no condition shall be imposed as to length of residence”
EEC Regulation 1251/70 is a piece of European Union law which had direct effect in UK law for as long as the UK was a member of the European Union by virtue of the European Communities Act 1972.
It was therefore not necessary, at any time, for there to be domestic regulations introduced in the UK for the terms of Regulation 1251/70 to have legal effect in the UK, and consequently an EU national meeting the relevant conditions of the Regulation was entitled to remain in the UK permanently without submitting any kind of application to the UK authorities.
This represents an exception to the general rule established in the Roehrig litigation on British citizenship that for persons born in the UK to EU national parents between 2 October 2000 and 29 April 2006 to become British citizens at birth it is necessary for their EU parent to have been granted indefinite leave to remain.
NG was detained under immigration powers by the Home Office on 30 July 2026 when he reached the end of the custodial portion of his prison sentence. The Home Office intended that he be deported to France, as the Home Office wrongly believed that NG only held French nationality through descent from his parents.
On 3 August 2026, Turpin Miller made an application for habeas corpus on behalf of NG, submitting that the Home Office had detained NG due to factual errors concerning the circumstances of his birth which led them to fail to realise that NG is a British citizen. It was not lawful to detain NG using immigration detention powers which are only lawfully exercisable against foreign nationals.
Following an Order from the Administrative Court on 4 August 2026 that an urgent response be provided to NG’s habeas corpus application, the Home Office filed a response on 5 August 2026 acknowledging that NG was born a British citizen, released him from detention unconditionally, and confirmed that the deportation order previously made against him as a solely French national had been revoked.
The habeas corpus application was subsequently withdrawn with the Home Office agreeing to pay NG’s legal costs.
NG was represented by Mike Poulter of Turpin Miller’s Public Law Team.