Scottish mum stuck abroad after baby falls foul of UK dual nationality rules
A British woman from Aberdeen has been stranded abroad after her 11-month-old baby was prevented from boarding a flight because of new rules regarding dual nationals.Sarah Schloegl was refused board on a Ryanair flight from Alicante last week after she went to Spain for a short break with her Austrian husband, Philipp, their three-year-old daughter and 11-month-old baby.Since February, British dual nationals have had to show a British passport or a certificate of entitlement of abode, costing £589, when they board flights, trains or ferries to the UK.Schloegl said she followed the news but was unaware of this change and argued it should have been displayed on posters in airports and on airline websites months before it happened so that passengers did not fall foul of the rule on return journeys.The first she knew of the rule change was when she got to the departure gate in Alicante.
Her older child, who has Austrian and British passports, and her husband, who has post-Brexit settled status, were told they could board the Ryanair flight, but the baby was refused.“I do feel this is ridiculous because my baby was born in the UK, lives in the UK, but she’s not allowed to enter the UK, even with me, her mum, who is British,” Schloegl said.“I’m from Scotland, our two kids were both born in Scotland, my parents, grandparents are all from Scotland and my husband has settled status.“If you think about this, who are the most affected? It is probably kids and young people are probably the ones who, with dual nationality, who are impacted most.”She, like hundreds of others who have contacted the Guardian in the last two months, have complained that the Home Office did not communicate the rule change effectively, something the immigration minister, Mike Tapp, has previously dismissed as “absurd”.
Monique Hawkins, the head of policy and advocacy at the campaign group the3million, said: “The Home Office said they would take a compassionate and pragmatic approach to travellers who experience genuine difficulty.We cannot see the compassion in refusing boarding to an 11-month baby.”While the Home Office has said the information was on gov.uk, dual nationals say nobody looks at the site.Schloegl said she was aware of the new Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), which her Austrian in-laws need to enter the UK, because it was mentioned on airline websites and had been widely publicised, but the rule on dual nationals had not.
The lack of communication has led to Britons who have been living abroad, sometimes for decades, missing important family occasions including funerals and visits to elderly parents,Schloegl said the ground staff were helpful and directed them the airport’s help desk in the hope they could board a later flight,“When we spoke to them we also phoned the registry office back home and they sent a scanned copy of the baby’s birth certificate which tells you she was born in the UK and that her Austrian passport was issued to her by the Austrian embassy in the UK,“They seemed to think that would be enough proof that she was British, but when they spoke to the Home Office they were told: ‘No, she’s not allowed into the country,’” Schloegl said,She was subsequently refused emergency travel documents for her baby and was told by the British embassy in Spain that she did not meet the criteria for the special papers.
Faced with the possibility of almost three months of delay, the family decided to camp out in Austria with family and friends.They have no timeline for resolution of the issues.The3million group has written to the European affairs minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, and the European Commission’s head of trade and economic security, Maroš Šefčovič, calling for action on dual-national children of those with settled status.They want the implementation of the Brexit withdrawal agreement to ostensibly cover children who become dual British nationals at birth due to a parent being British or settled in the UK.A spokesperson for the Home Office said public information advising British dual nationals on the correct documentation to carry since February had been on gov.
uk since October 2024, with a “substantive communications campaign on the introduction of ETA” running since 2023.They refused to comment on the specific case but said emergency documents were available only to those who already had a passport.For those without a previous passport there were exceptions, it said.These include the need for urgent travel for medical reasons or to attend the funeral of a close relative.
Trainline says Middle East tensions hitting European rail bookings
Trainline has said the US standoff with Iran is hitting its revenues, with rail ticket sales to foreign visitors to Europe affected.The UK-based international ticketing aganet said it expected revenues to stay flat or decline over the coming year, citing “the effects of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East on inbound air traffic into Europe”.Airlines have reported later bookings, with considerable consumer uncertainty around summer travel plans. The US-Israel war on Iran, closure of the strait of Hormuz and subsequent blockades have raised doubts about global jet fuel supply, with carriers already beginning to cancel thousands of flights.Shares in the company dropped sharply on its earnings guidance, with the Middle East tensions adding to Trainline’s prior warnings of headwinds, including UK ticketing policy
Airlines among companies using fuel surcharges to cover surge in costs, UK survey shows
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JD Wetherspoon issues third profit warning this year as costs climb
The boss of JD Wetherspoon has said the pub chain could miss profit expectations because of rising costs, in the latest sign the UK hospitality industry is buckling under the pressure of higher energy, food, labour and tax bills.The company’s chair, Tim Martin, told investors on Wednesday: “As many hospitality operators, including Wetherspoon, have reported, there have been substantial increases in costs.”It is the third profit warning this year from the company, which operates about 800 pubs across the UK and Ireland. Investors had already been expecting a drop in pre-tax profit to £73m, compared with £81m last year.Pubs, restaurants and hotels have said rising costs are making it harder to make a profit
UK regulator launches review of ‘aggressive’ claims management firms amid compensation concerns
The City regulator has launched a review of claims management companies amid concerns that firms are misleading victims of financial scandals, such as car finance, about their compensation.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said some companies were pursuing “aggressive marketing, misleading advertising and unfair exit fees”.Some consumers were being signed up without their permission or by multiple companies, the FCA said, which could delay any compensation owed.Claims management companies (CMCs) have targeted victims of the car finance scandal, where they can charge fees worth up to 33% of the final payouts. The FCA and lenders have advised consumers not to use these firms as the regulator’s scheme is free to use
‘Our competitors are everyone’: Joybuy leads ‘China’s Amazon’ into the UK
“We’re here to shake up the UK e-commerce market,” says Matthew Nobbs, the UK boss of Joybuy which is spearheading a European charge by China’s version of Amazon.“I see our competitors as everyone,” he adds, reflecting the scale of ambition of the online retailer that sells home appliances, groceries, makeup and more.Joybuy is owned by China’s JD.com, the giant online and high street retail group which is taking on its US rival Amazon in Britain in a clash that is expected to lead to “collateral damage” for UK retailers caught up in the tussle for shoppers.JD
Global finance watchdog warns over private credit industry fuelling AI boom
The private credit industry’s role in fuelling the AI boom could backfire, with a sharp correction leading to “sizeable” losses, the Financial Stability Board has warned.A new report on private credit by the global watchdog, which monitors financial authorities including central banks in 24 countries, found that the healthcare, services, and tech sectors have become the biggest borrowers of private credit.That includes AI companies, which have increasingly turned to private lenders to fund datacentres and other infrastructure. The AI industry accounted for more than a third of private credit deals in 2025, up from 17% over the previous five years. “This focus on specific sectors may leave private credit funds exposed to idiosyncratic risks … [and] increase exposure to region or industry-specific shocks,” the report said
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