Campbell wants Irish unionists born outside the North to be allowed to hold British passports

He said citizenship of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland should be opened up to unionists born in the Republic.

Raising a “little-known anomaly” that prohibits southern-born unionists including Mr. Campbell’s long time colleague Willie Hay from carrying a British passport, he said: “When the Irish Republic, or the Irish free state as it was then, left the Commonwealth in 1949, the British Government of the time allowed those who had been born in the Republic and had moved to NI or elsewhere in the UK to retain their British citizenship. Nowadays, those who were born in the Republic and live in NI cannot obtain British passports, although people who have never been to the Republic can obtain Irish passports.

“In terms of UK citizenship, those people are still somewhat disadvantaged.”