Toronto Star

Pro-Brexit campaigner applies for French residency

- SIOBHAN O’GRADY

In 2016, Nigel Lawson, the former chair of the Vote Leave campaign, said Brexit was a “historic opportunit­y” to make the United Kingdom the “most dynamic and freest country” in Europe.

It turns out he’s now applying for residency in France.

Many British expats are scrambling to secure residency outside of Britain to avoid trouble with immigratio­n paperwork and work permits as the U.K. prepares to leave the European Union.

Since Brexit, EU officials have warned British citizens that their post-Brexit passports, which will be navy blue instead of the EU burgundy, could cause delays in immigratio­n lines.

In a conversati­on with the Connexion, an English-language newspaper printed for the expat community in France, Lawson said he has begun the process of securing his official carte de séjour in France.

“Yes, I’ve just started and don’t know how it will work out, but I am not partic- ularly worried,” the pro-Brexit campaigner said about his efforts to secure residency.

“It comes under the category of ‘tiresome’ rather than ‘serious.’ ” He lives in Gascony, in southwest France.

Lawson served in Margaret Thatcher’s Conservati­ve cabinet in the 1980s, and called Brexit “a chance to finish the Thatcher revolution.”

But his opponents say he’s a hypocrite for insisting Britain leave the EU, and then benefiting from the union by setting up residency there.

Paul Butters, director of communicat­ions at Best for Britain, a pro-EU group, said that “the idea that the chairman of Vote Leave has applied for his residency card in France takes the biscuit.”

“It seemed to Lawson that no cost was not worth paying to leave,” Butters said. “But with this news, it seems the cost will be paid by others while the former chancellor suns himself in his luxury home in France.”

In a 2016 interview with the Guardian ahead of the referendum, Lawson insisted he had nothing against Europe, but just found the EU to be impractica­l for Britain and an impediment to self-governance. “I love Europe!” he said. “That’s why I live in France.”

 ?? PETER KEMP/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO ?? Opponents say former chair of Vote Leave campaign Nigel Lawson is a hypocrite for insisting Britain leave the EU, then benefiting from the union by moving there.
PETER KEMP/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO Opponents say former chair of Vote Leave campaign Nigel Lawson is a hypocrite for insisting Britain leave the EU, then benefiting from the union by moving there.

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