POLITICS

A million extra EU migrants may be free to enter Britain

Those arriving two years after March 2019 will be able to qualify for permanent settlement
Those arriving two years after March 2019 will be able to qualify for permanent settlement
STEVE PARSONS/PA

A million more people from the EU could be allowed to settle in Britain under proposals to extend rights to those arriving in a two-year post-Brexit transition period, a report claims.

A paper from Migration Watch UK, which campaigns for lower immigration, due to be published today, says that if Theresa May accepts the proposal from Brussels, those arriving in the two years after March 2019 would be able to stay for the five years necessary to qualify for permanent settlement. It added that such a person could then be joined by family members.

The think tank said that based on the annual average of 535,000 people from the EU registering for national insurance numbers between 2012-13 and 2016-17 , a million people could come