A plot to kidnap pop star Posh Spice Victoria Beckham and her son for one million pounds was foiled by Scotland Yard’s elite organized crime unit, Britain’s Sunday newspapers reported. A plot to kidnap pop star Posh Spice Victoria Beckham and her son for one million pounds was foiled by Scotland Yard’s elite organized crime unit, Britain’s Sunday newspapers reported.
Kidnappers planned to abduct the pair while Beckham’s soccer star husband David competed in an England vs Scotland match last November, according to The Sunday Times.Mother and child were to be held captive in a north London house. Mr Bermingham told The Independent on Sunday: “We are dealing with two tiny children who are legally the children of those two men The interests of the children are paramount. But the Labour MP, Gerald Bermingham, a practising lawyer, wants Mr Straw to act before then. He has told the Home Secretary in a letter that the two men should be allowed to keep the twins with them in Britain. “This couple are British and have no space in America,” she said.

“It is a bit unclear why immigration are making such a fuss about them. There is a good argument to suggest that there is some discrimination going on here because they are gay men.”A third lawyer said that there was existing case law from a similar situation in Portugal, where the government fell foul of European law for refusing the child of a surrogate mother access to its parents.The fate of the babies is likely to be decided, at least in the interim, by January 28. But if a failure to have immigration status would mean you have no family life there is an arguable breach of the convention there.”Another expert said she believed the European law, which judges have been told to take into account when making decisions ahead of October when it comes into full force, would count them as a family. A child has the right to see its parents but whether that would extend to the right to live here is another matter. But Mr Straw is likely to have to rule in the men’s favour because, under articles 8 and 14 of the Convention, they have a winnable case.One senior lawyer said: “Everybody has a right to respect for family life. Under British law, the babies’ legal parents are the surrogate mother and her husband in the US, even though sperm from one of the men was used to conceive the children and Mr Barlow and Mr Drewitt are recorded as the parents on the birth certificates.The two men have said they will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if it is not resolved by the British government.

Immigration officials allowed them temporary admission for one month while the Home Office examined the case. This means that the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, could be forced to to grant citizenship to the babies, Aspen and Saffron, despite fears it could open the floodgates to similar cases.The gay couple from Danbury, Essex, tried to bring the twins into the UK but were refused automatic entry at Heathrow. “People analyse things too much,” she says, “We’re losing the spontaneity, what people used to call love There’s so much baggage we’re encouraged to carry. If I had my way, I’d tell people to stop reading the self-help books, drop the counsellors, and follow their heart.” Just remember to sign the pre-nup first.. By Jo Dillon, Political Correspondent

By Jo Dillon, Political Correspondent
9 January 2000The surrogate children of the gay millionaire couple Barrie Drewitt and Tony Barlow seem certain to be granted British citizenship thanks to European law.Legal experts have explained to The Independent on Sunday that under the European Convention on Human Rights, which will be incorporated into British law in October, the children may have the right to a family life with their parents, regardless of the parents’ sexuality.