MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, Tulip Siddiq revealed that she was stopped by UK border control as her daughter did not share her surname. She said her family was returning from a holiday in France when she was stopped right before boarding the Eurostar after being allowed to join the fast-track queue with her pushchair. Tulip, along with her 18 month daughter Azalea were separated from her husband Chris Percy.
“My daughter looks quite different to me, she looks like her dad. At the UK border the man looked at my passport for a long time and my daughter's passport and he said 'Who is this girl?' I was really surprised by the question, and he repeated it, and I said, 'This is my daughter', and he asked why we don't have the same name,” Tulip said. She added, “There was a lot of discussion... the whole thing was very tense, my daughter was crying and saying 'mama, mama' but that didn't seem to be what would convince them.”
The 34 year old has written to the Home Office asking for a change to children’s passports so they can hold both their parents' names. She found that in the last five years, an estimated 600,000 women had been asked to provide evidence, on their relation with their children when crossing the border. Tulip said the whole interview made her very uncomfortable. “It wasn't exactly hostile but there was a real air of suspicion, I was made to feel like I had done something wrong.”
A Home Office spokesperson said the measures were to safeguard children and prevent people trafficking. “We have a duty to safeguard children and to prevent people trafficking, child sexual exploitation and other crimes committed against children. That is why Border Force staff need to determine whether the adult travelling with the child has parental responsibility or parental authority had been given to travel with the child,” they said.
