Tasmanian crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie tearfully resigned from the Parliament on November 14 after learning that she unknowingly held British citizenship.

Lambie has became the eighth MP to quit over dual citizenship since July. She said she wrongly assumed her Scottish grandfather had renounced his British citizenship and did not realise she was therefore a UK citizen herself. Australia’s constitution forbids dual citizens from holding office in Canberra.

“Anyone who knows my father will be shocked to think of him as anything else than an Aussie. He loves his footie and to this day is still heavily involved in his local country football club at Turner’s Beach in Tasmania,” said Lambie.

“I love my father to death and I do not blame him for this. He’s done nothing for which to apologise and he has been my strongest supporter, my loudest cheer squad and my closest adviser. It’s not because of him that I’m leaving this place. It’s because of him that I’m here in the first place.”

Lambie, from Tasmania, was first elected to the Senate in 2013. She was at first a member of the Palmer United Party before leaving and founding the Jacqui Lambie Network. Among other things, she was known for advocating a crackdown on halal certification, which she said was funding Islamic State, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Credit: Jacqui Lambie via Storyful