Migrants to get another two years to settle in UK
MINISTERS were last night said to have capitulated over proposals to allow EU migrants to settle in Britain during the Brexit transition period.
EU citizens will continue to be able to move to the UK for up to two years after Britain’s official exit from the bloc next year, according to a statement on the Home Office’s website yesterday.
As part of Britain’s offer to the European Union, they will also get the right to apply for permanent residence under the proposals.
But campaigners for lower migration last night accused the Government of giving in to the bloc’s demands.
Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of the think tank MigrationWatch UK, said: “This means anyone coming to work, study or be selfsufficient will acquire the right to remain indefinitely and bring their family.
“This is a complete capitulation to EU demands, as yet with no parallel commitment from EU member states.
Negotiations
“This will lead to a scale of immigration to the UK that the electorate voted against and certainly don’t want to see.”
The Home Office proposals published yesterday are due to be discussed with the EU in the Brexit negotiations in Brussels.
The Home Office policy statement said: “EU citizens and their family members will be able to move to the UK during the implementation period on the same basis as they do today.
“This means that there will be no new constraints on working or studying in the UK during the implementation period.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman last night said the policy was consistent with her suggestion that the status of EU migrants arriving during the transition period would be different from those coming before Brexit.
The spokesman said: “Everybody will be free to come here to live, work and study. Everybody staying more than three months will have to register.
“People who remain here for a fixed period of time will be able to apply for leave to remain.
“The Prime Minster said some of the rights will be different than for those who move here before March 2019.”