The proposals prompted The Guardian newspaper to carry out a straw poll to find out how British citizens would fare if they appeared for the test.

The result of the poll said: "Most Britons would be handing back our passports to the Home Office if we had to pass a test to remain citizens."

Under the new proposals, would-be citizens would be assessed on their progress in English and would have to improve by at least one level on the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) scale.

The test is intended to make people feel more proud of becoming new British citizens. It is proposed that applicants learn about British history.

Who is the prime minister? How do you pay a telephone bill? What do the main political parties stand for? When was Britain last invaded? When was the Act of Union? - are some of the possible suggested questions.

If immigrants failed the citizenship test, it would not affect their residence in this country but they would not be given a passport or be able to vote.

The proposals were drawn up by the Life in the United Kingdom Advisory Panel, chaired by Bernard Crick.

"With people who have English already, you could do a pretty quick machine-readable test of three passages. Passages would describe what the Conservative Party stands for or the Labour Party stands for," said Brenard.

He feels, "If school children can answer these sorts of questions, I see no reason why adults shouldn't."

However, Home secretary David Blunkett said that being able to recite dates from British history by rote would not be a constructive addition to the exam.

"Knowing the six wives of Henry VIII doesn't constitute being a good citizen," he said. But understanding the structures of Britain would contribute to that goal, he added.

"You would need to know about when Britain was last invaded, if you were touching on what happened in terms of consequent of 20th century wars," he said.

Blunkett said he wanted to encourage people who are permanently settled in this country to apply for citizenship here.

"In common with people in this country from many different cultural backgrounds, I think being British is something to be proud of," he said.