Home Office must fix 'joke' citizen test, says committee

The Home Office is being pressured to urgently reform the UK's "joke" citizenship test, which quizzed immigrants on a series of "random" facts under threat of deportation.

- JON STONE

People who want to permanently settle in the UK are made to take the bizarre quiz on British history and culture, but a parliamentary committee says its content is not fit for purpose.

Content covered by the Life In The UK Test includes how a person should react when spilling beer over someone in a pub and where the founder of the UK's first curry house eloped with his wife. It also includes subjective assertions and opinions, like the claim that the British empire was a "force for good in the world".

People taking the test are also expected to memorise a dubious version of history that claims Britain fought alone against Nazi Germany. Failing the trial-by-trivia could lead to a person being deported, the loss of their livelihood, and potential separation from family, the critical parliamentary report notes.