MAY SEALS DEAL WITH THE DUP ...NOW LET’S GET ON WITH BREXIT
EU CITIZENS will have to use new official ID to prove they are entitled to benefit from vital public services after Brexit.
In a sign that Theresa May is serious about taking back control of immigration, the Prime Minister unveiled the full details of her “fair and serious” offer to provide certainty for EU residents with a new “settled status” regime after Brexit.
Under the scheme EU citizens who were present in the UK before the cut-off – which is to be set for a date between March 29, when Article 50 was triggered, and the date on which the UK leaves the EU in 2019 – will be able to apply for “settled status” once they have been here for five years.
The status provides most of the benefits EU citizens currently have as a right in the UK, including health, pensions, benefits and education.
There will be a period of up to two years in which they can apply for it but once they have it the Home Office will allocate an official document to use as proof they have settled status.
EU citizens will have to use a form of ID card as proof that they are entitled to services. And the Government has signalled in its policy document it will collect “biometric data” from applicants.
Generous
However, Brexit Secretary David Davis has played down suggestions EU nationals would actually have to carry ID cards.
He said: “It’s not an ID card. What we are talking about here is documentation to prove you have got a right to a job, a right to residence.
“You don’t have to carry that around all the time – it’s not an ID card.
“It’s rather like your birth certificate, not an ID card, good heavens.”
The Government has also made it clear that those convicted of serious crimes or who pose a security risk will not be entitled to the new status.
Mrs May announced the broad principles of her offer on Thursday night to fellow European Union heads of government.
Outlining more details to parliament yesterday, she said that the proposals would offer certainty for the 3.2 million EU nationals currently resident in the UK.
“Under these plans, no EU citizen currently in the UK lawfully will be asked to leave at the point the UK leaves the EU,” she said.
A Government paper outlines how those with five years’ continuous residence in the UK would be able to apply for settled status – granting them indefinite leave to remain.
“They will be treated as if they were UK citizens for healthcare, benefits and pensions,” Mrs May told the House of Commons. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded, suggesting he would support EU demands for a foreign court – the European Court of Justice – to have jurisdiction in Britain and allow more EU citizens to have the right to live in the UK beyond Brexit. And he said Mrs May’s proposals were “too little, too late”.
He added: “This isn’t a generous offer. This is confirmation the Government is prepared to use people as bargaining chips.”
A Downing Street spokesman said he did “not recognise the phrase ID cards” but conceded the policy paper talks about “residency documents”.
He added: “As to what form that piece of paper takes, I don’t know.”
Campaigners seeking to control the flow of immigration into Britain also welcomed the offer by the Prime Minister as “generous and reasonable”.
Commenting on the plans, Lord Green of Deddington, co-founder and chairman of campaign group Migration Watch UK, said: “This is a very generous offer that fully respects the reasonable demands of EU citizens who have made their lives here.
“Despite previous scaremongering, no one will be asked to go home.
“Clearly there needs to be some form of judicial oversight of the rights of EU nationals in the UK.
“This cannot possibly be the European Court of Justice. Having decided to leave the EU, the public would never accept the jurisdiction of a foreign court over our internal affairs.”
However, senior figures in Brussels, who are pushing for the Luxembourgbased court to have control over British law, attacked the offer and demanded more.
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said: “More ambition, clarity and guarantees needed than in today’s UK position.” The European parliament’s lead Brexit negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, said: “A number of limitations remain worrisome and will have to be carefully assessed.”