London’s lefty mayor touts record numbers of Americans applying for British citizenship

They’re trading their sneakers for trainers and elevators for lifts.

A record number of Americans have applied to become British citizens, London’s lefty mayor touted at an event in the UK Monday.

“I’ve got to say we’re delighted that record numbers of Americans are applying for British citizenship or to live and work here, and that many are choosing to settle in London,” Sadiq Khan told the crowd at the Concordia Europe Summit, as he heralded the capital as a “beacon of hope, progress and possibility.”

Some 1,931 Americans applied for UK citizenship in the first three months of 2025, according to figures from the UK Home Office — marking the highest number since recordkeeping began in 2004.

REUTERS

Meanwhile, the number of US citizens applying to settle in the UK as their permanent home — rather than just move there for an undefined period — also hit a record last year, with more than 5,500 Americans granted settled status, a 20% increase from 2023.

“Our city will always offer newcomers a warm welcome,” Khan added.

AP

However, at the same time, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government was planning to impose more stringent requirements on legal migrants, while also extending the time newcomers would have to wait to claim citizenship.

In a news conference earlier this month, Starmer declared an end to a “squalid chapter” that has seen migration to the UK more than triple over the last 10 years, which he called “a failed experiment in open borders.”

In a policy paper last month, Starmer — who previously championed the significant increase of migrants to the city — called the damage caused by immigration to the country “incalculable.”

Around 5,800 Americans gave up their US citizenship during the first six months of 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and at a time of widespread social and political upheaval in the country.

However, taxes were also cited as another reason some made the decision, Alistair Bambridge, a partner at Bambridge Accountants, told CNN at the time.

“These are mainly people who already left the US and just decided they’ve had enough of everything,” he said.

The surge in would-be expatriates in the first quarter of 2025 is a 12% increase from the previous quarter, continuing a sharp uptick in the trend which started in the middle of 2024.