Boris Johnson announced that he will be renouncing his US citizenship.
The mayor of London was born in New York and holds a British and an American passport, however, he revealed he wants to be more committed to Britain.
Johnson said:
“The reason I’m thinking I probably will want to make a change is that my commitment is, and always has been, to Britain.”
Adding:
“It’s an accident of birth that has left me with this thing. I’ve got to find a way of sorting it out.”
Mr Johnson said that he will be approaching US ambassador Matthew Barzun about his decision.
He told the Sunday Times:
“It is a laborious business. They don’t make it easy for you,”
Experts say that having a dual nationality wouldn’t prevent Boris Johnson from becoming prime minister one day, however, there would be concerns about his loyalties.
In his recent visit to the US he met up with his New York counterpart Bill de Blasio as well as US presidential front-runner Hilary Clinton.
He spent most of his visit talking about how major cities should tackle the increased terror threat.
He also paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the September 11 attacks, saying that the UK and the US will ‘never to give in to those who mean us harm’.
Boris Johnson went on a tour of the memorial created to mark the 2001 tragedy and left flowers there that read:
“The people of London will never forget the thousands who lost their lives on 9/11 2001.”
“We honour the memory. We remember the sufferings of their families and all the bereaved. Our two cities embody the highest values of our civilisation: freedom, democracy, pluralism and tolerance.”
“We are jointly resolved never to compromise those values and never to give in to those who mean us harm.”
The US has a citizenship system we call Jus Solis, which is Latin for ‘law of soil.’ It means that people assume the nationality of where they were born.