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Boris Johnson’s father Stanley has confirmed he is applying for a French passport on the eve of the end of Britain’s Brexit transition period.
In an interview with French radio RTL, he said: “It is not about becoming French. If I understand correctly, I am French! My mother was born in France, her mother was completely French just like her grandfather.
“For me, it’s about getting what I already have and I’m very happy with that.”
Johnson, 80, was an MEP 40 years ago and was one of the first British civil servants to work in Brussels after Britain joined the European Union and then the European Economic Community, in 1973. He then worked for the European Commission.
He campaigned for the UK to stay in the EU in 2016, while his son led the departure movement.
Britain’s transition period will end at 11 p.m. on Thursday, after Parliament voted the Prime Minister’s post-Brexit trade deal on Wednesday. The UK will no longer be affected by EU free movement rules, which means among other things that millions of people will lose the automatic right to work in the 27 EU Member States.
Thousands of Britons have acquired European citizenship since the Brexit vote. More than 350,000 had applied for the nationality of another EU state in January of this year. Close historical ties between Ireland and the UK put the country at the top of the league for European passports held by dual-nationality Britons.
According to AFP, Johnson said in his interview: “I will always be European for sure.
“You cannot say to the English ‘you are not European’. Europe is more than the single market, it is more than the European Union.
“Having said that, having a link like this with the EU is important,” he concluded, apparently referring to a European passport.
His plan to apply for a French passport had already been revealed by his daughter Rachel in a book published in March.
She wrote that her grandmother was born in Versailles and that if her father obtained French nationality, she too would like to become French.
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