My biggest surprise in becoming a British citizen was how few citizens were aware of the UK's citizenship test, or able to pass it when asked questions from the official handbook. I stumbled on the test in 2009 when completing my application for an ‘Indefinite Leave to Remain’ visa which would permit me to keep my job and continue to live permanently in the UK. Working through the application, I saw a mysterious box asking me to confirm whether I had passed the test or taken an English language course that taught citizenship. Either way, I was required to show a pass certificate I did not have for a test that I did not know existed. Most people I spoke to who were born British did not know about the test and, if they did, had no idea what was in it.

Like so many others before me, I found a practice online citizenship test and promptly failed it. I picked up a test handbook and began studying in earnest as I had only weeks to pass it before my visa expired. When my students would come to my office at university to ask me a question, I would insist that I ask them a question first from the test handbook. I could not understand why so many enormously talented students at a leading Russell Group university studying law or politics – many of whom with an ‘A*’ or ‘A’ A- level grades in Politics – could get so many questions wrong. It was this that had first raised my suspicions about whether there was ever a consultation on the test before or after its launch, whether the information tested was genuinely essential to active citizenship and whether, in fact, all the facts included were even correct.

I have made some shocking findings, detailed in full for the first time here. While over two million have sat the test, there has never been any official review and continuing problems were either unchecked or ignored. Despite all main political parties claiming immigration was a priority issue, the citizenship test and its problems were rarely on their political radars.