PM promises all 3million EU citizens they can stay – even without a Brexit deal
ALL 3.2million EU citizens living in Britain will be told they can stay after Brexit, whether there is a deal or not.
This move by Theresa May today marks her biggest offer yet to reassure EU citizens living in Britain in an 11th-hour bid to unlock Brexit deadlock at a crunch summit.
The PM will mount a face to face appeal to all 27 other EU leaders tonight to ease businesses’ exit fears by starting talks about a two year transition.
And to persuade them to agree, Mrs May has written a personal letter to all 3.2million of their citizens here to offer a series of promises.
The PM pledges:
- All of them will be able to stay in the UK after Brexit, with or without any deal
- If there is a Brexit deal, she will give them a direct and regular say on how to make the massive registration process as simple and easy as possible by setting up ‘user groups’
- To scrap the current requirement under EU rules for them to have Comprehensive Sickness Insurance to live in the UK
Mrs May’s latest offer comes as a host of senior Brexiteers also today demand she abandons the Brexit negotiations if the EU again refuses to budge.
Their ultimatum ramps the pressure on Mrs May to return home tomorrow having won some progress at the two day summit in Brussels.
In the feelgood letter, Mrs May writes: “As I travel to Brussels today, I know that many people will be looking to us to demonstrate we are putting people first.
“When we started this process, some accused us of treating EU nationals as bargaining chips. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
“I couldn’t be clearer: EU citizens living lawfully in the UK today will be able to stay.”
The letter is being sent to all 100,000 EU citizens already registered in Britain, and will be published on Mrs May’s Facebook page.
As well as beginning transition talks, Mrs May will also press EU leaders to seal an agreement on EU citizens rights – insisting it is within “touching distance”.
But No10 made it clear Mrs May will again point blank refuse to discuss the size of Britain’s divorce bill – the red line demand that Brussels negotiators have issued before trade and transition talks can begin.
Setting Britain’s bar for the summit, the PM’s official spokesman said: “We want discussions to start taking place on a future partnership and an implementation period as soon as possible”.
EU Council boss Donald Tusk offered the PM hope last night by declaring he will recommend “the EU27 to begin internal preparations for talks on the transition and the future relationship”.
But he also insisted though progress has been “promising”, it is not sufficient to begin full trade talks.
Mrs May was given a boost last night when a leaked German government paper revealed Berlin wants to offer Britain a “comprehensive free-trade accord”.
But it also reveals a major caveat, that the UK agrees to adhere to the EU’s rules and regulations.
Hungary also warned other EU members that failure to agree a trade deal with Britian would have “tragic consequences for the European economy.”
Its Foreign Affairs minister Péter Szijjártó argued that the UK “provides one-seventh of the EU’s economic performance”.
The walk away demand if the PM is rebuffed by EU leaders - who will meet alone to discuss her pitch tomorrow morning - is lead by former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson.
In a group letter organised by the Leave Means Leave campaign, he is joined by former Tory Cabinet minister Peter Lilley and Leave-backing Labour MPs Kate Hoey and Graham Stringer.
Dubbing Mrs May’s speech in Florence as “warm and generous”, they argue: “No deal on trade is better than a deal which locks the UK into the European regulatory system and takes opportunities off the table”.
Labour boss Jeremy Corbyn will also be in Brussels today for Brexit talks with three EU leaders and EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.
