The Londoner: Diplomat caught in Windrush trap

Diplomats caught up in Windrush scandal / Meghan Markle gets the husband she always wanted / Lord Bell answers his phone / Jacob Rees-Mogg doesn't / Nicholas Soames gets stuck in lift
"A short tale of how the Home Office treats everyone with disdain": Former diplomat Andrew Snell
30 April 2018

Arthur Snell, a former British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, has told his own story about citizenship struggles in light of the Windrush stories.

Snell, pictured, wrote on Twitter that after he and his wife had a son in Trinidad in 2011, “We duly applied for his passport ... after a few weeks I received notification that he had been refused.” He added, “You cannot be more British than the British High Commissioner but he wasn’t British enough.”

Snell’s problems got worse because his son was ineligible for Trinidadian citizenship. But though Snell, then High Commissioner, managed to resolve the issue speedily, “I felt powerless and nervous in spite of my privileged position.”

He went on, “Compared to the experience of many deserving British residents, including #Windrush generations, my problems were trivial. But it illustrates a #HomeOffice that defaults to refusal wherever possible.”

Snell is a former diplomat who has served across the world in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Zimbabwe. He described his story as “a short tale of how the Home Office treats everyone with disdain, to the point of absurdity.” When The Londoner spoke to him this morning, he said: “It’s a hostility policy that falls heaviest on those who have the least.”

Parents who have children born outside the UK must apply to the Home Office to register the child as a British citizen. They must fill out a 31-page form, pay £973, plus £19.20 for biometric information such as fingerprints and a photograph. The Home Office website states “In most cases you won’t get a refund if your application is refused.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We are sorry for any distress caused to the Snell family.”

If Britain’s top diplomats struggle with a “computer says no” attitude towards citizenship for those born abroad, one wonders, other than the Windrush generation, who else born abroad might have fallen foul of what Snell describes?

Ooh la la, Rodin show is ‘European’

The new French ambassador, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, might have admitted that his English was poor as he opened the Rodin exhibition at the British Museum last night. But he was fluent in his message on Europe.

“I’m French but I’m also a Norman, which might be an advantage to the English. This is an exceptional European exhibition — I repeat European. This is also an exhibition about bilateral co-operation.”

Music to the ears of some MPs at the opening, such as the strongly pro-European Ben Bradshaw and Margaret Hodge.

---

PRESS series record, tonight is Meghan Markle’s final bow in Suits. Her last episode of the legal drama airs in the US tonight, and sees her character, Rachel, being married off: “You are the husband I always wanted,” she gushes during the vows. Let’s hope the show’s writers haven’t had a say in the real thing.

---

Here at The Londoner we just cannot get enough of the glamour of Vogue editor Edward Enninful. We learn that he has a routine with his assistant. Wordless, he approaches with his palms proffered and the amenable colleague knows to squirt a little bit of hand cream on each.

Mandela is fondly remembered by raised glasses and breaking into song

Celebrating Madiba:Lady Emma Weymouth and Sinitta (Photo Dave Benett/Getty Images) 
Dave Benett/Getty Images

This year is the centenary of Nelson Mandela — he would have celebrated his 100th birthday in July — so the stars gathered at the Rosewood Hotel in Holborn last night for the Nelson Mandela Foundation gala dinner.

The event was co-hosted by Vanessa Williams, the US singer, actress, former Miss America and Desperate Housewives star, and Bonang Matheba, the South African television personality. “Celebrating Madiba on such a global scale fills my heart with so much joy,” Matheba said.

Singer Beverley Knight entertained the guests, which had an above- average lord and lady contingent: Labour peer Lord Boateng and his wife were joined by Lady Emma Weymouth, down from Longleat for the night. She caught up with Sinitta, the singer and ex of X Factor judge Simon Cowell, who is about to publish a tell-all book about her life among the rich and famous. “Everyone has got to be worried”, she teases.

SW1A

Nicholas Soames, MP for Mid Sussex and a grandson of Winston Churchill, didn’t have his finest half-hour yesterday: he got trapped in a lift near Sloane Square. The Twitter-loving backbench MP waited until he was free before informing the world of his plight: “Have been stuck in a lift but am now released to an understandably anxious nation. Government now back again fully operational and in safe but sweaty hands!”

---

Simon Hart MP has royal baby ennui. He tweets: “Call me a miserable git but what’s the point of all these Twitter messages from politicians congratulating Prince William and the Duchess on the birth of their child? It’s not as if they will read them.”

---

Gillian Merron, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, who presided over last night’s meeting with Jeremy Corbyn, might have found herself conflicted. She was a Labour health minister under Gordon Brown.

Quote of the day

‘I don’t answer withheld numbers. They’re always troublesome’ Jacob Rees-Mogg, when asked if he would accept a call from Number 10 offering a job

Bell on the rings interrupting Wark

“I didn’t know that they were going to ambush me,” says Lord Bell of his now infamous Newsnight interview with Kirsty Wark. Bell’s phone went off twice as he was being grilled over Bell Pottinger, his former company, which ran a racially divisive PR campaign in South Africa.

At one point Bell was seen proudly showing his screen to the presenter — he tells Gentleman’s Journal that it was a text from South African tycoon Johann Rupert. “He said, ‘Thank you for being the only honourable person in this whole story’.” Still the consummate PR.

---

Hello petal: Grayson Perry (Photo Dave Benett/Getty Images) 
Dave Benett/Getty Images

Artist and sculptor Grayson Perry was adorned in petals and pom-poms at the Royal Academy Schools annual dinner last night. Florals for spring?

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in