May’s migrant offer ‘pathetic’

PM: PROPOSAL FOR CITIZENS’ RIGHTS IN UK ‘VERY FAIR’

EU workers are worried their rights would no longer be protected.

London

European Union (EU) migrants to Britain said yesterday that far from being “generous”, Prime Minister Theresa May’s offer for their post-Brexit future was stingy and would leave them prey to Britain’s unforgiving bureaucrats.

Some migrants worried that the proposals meant their rights would no longer be protected by the European Court of Justice after an EU membership referendum last year in which they had no say.

“There’s nothing special in her offer,” Spanish nurse Joan Pons, one of 60 000 Europeans working for the National Health Service (NHS) in England alone, said.

“It’s not a ‘generous’ offer. It’s rather ridiculous,” he said.

The offer outlined by the beleaguered May at an EU summit was also criticised by London mayor Sadiq Khan as woefully insufficient for the three million EU nationals living in Britain.

Over dinner on Thursday with her 27 EU counterparts, May promised EU citizens living in Britain they could stay after Brexit, with permanent rights to healthcare, education, welfare and pensions equivalent to British nationals.

It was “a fair and serious offer” that brought certainty to those affected, May said, although European officials were underwhelmed in their responses.

May said she expected any offer by Britain to be matched by the EU for the 1.2 million Britons living in the bloc. She insisted that Britain’s “highly respected” courts were fully competent to adjudicate on any disputes.

But EU leaders want their nationals to have recourse to the European Court of Justice if needed after Brexit, rather than being put with non-EU foreigners, subject to Britain’s notoriously tough immigration rules. –