A generous offer. Now control our borders

to suspect a person has a hidden criminal history abroad. It raises the prospect that dangerous EU criminals – including killers, rapists and drug lords – will not be identified when they apply for the right to live here permanently.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid yesterday unveiled details of the settlement scheme, which will run for those EU citizens who want to stay in Britain after the Brexit transition period ends in December 2020.

He said he wanted to make the system as ‘simple’ as possible. Ministers have said the application process, which will operate online, via a smartphone app or traditional paperwork, will be as easy as renewing a driving licence. Mr Javid said the Government’s ‘default’ position would be to grant settled status and there would have to be ‘a very good reason why you are not going to get that’.

But the generous regime appears to be at odds with the lack of information from Brussels on the arrangements for British citizens who want to remain in the EU after the transition period.

Tory MP Philip Davies expressed concern about the ‘lax’ checks on criminal databases, adding: ‘Migrants who commit crimes here should be deported unless there are extenuating circumstances. The Government seems to be taking the view that unless it is a very serious crime, they are okay to stay, which is the wrong way round.’

Under the Home Office’s ‘settled status’ scheme, any EU migrant who has lived in Britain legally for at least five years will get the right to stay here.

And anyone who has been resident in the UK for a shorter period will be allowed to stay on after Brexit until they have reached the five-year threshold, at which point they can apply.

In fact, any EU migrants who arrive in Britain before the end of the so-called transition period on December 31, 2020, will be able to stay on.

The application scheme is set to be trialled within weeks before it opens ‘fully’ on March 30 next year – the day after Britain officially departs the bloc. The final deadline for applications is the end of June 2021. Applications will cost £ 5 for adults and £32.50 for children and be free for EU nationals who already have residency or indefinite leave to remain. They will be given a ‘digital document’ confirming their right to be in the UK.

Lord Green of Deddington, of the Migrationwatch think-tank, said: ‘The effect of these arrangements is that EU citizens who arrive during the transition period will have the right to stay on for five years. They would then acquire rights to bring in spouses, parents and grandparents that were greater than those of British citi-

zens.’ The £1 0 million scheme will be com- pulsory for all EU citizens living in the UK.

Mr Javid said decisions would be granted ‘very quickly’, with most applications turned around within two weeks. He said there would be no repeat of the Windrush scandal – which saw people who had lived in the UK for decades threatened with deportation because they did not have the right paperwork.

Jill Rutter, of the think-tank British Future, said: ‘After Windrush showed what happens when you get it wrong, it is important that the Home Secretary sends a very clear message that the central purpose of this policy is for everybody eligible to qualify, so they can get on with their lives in the UK.’

RATIONALLY and morally, there may be a strong case for Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s policy of allowing all EU migrants living in Britain to stay after Brexit.

Any attempt to uproot families who have lived here for years would be mean-spirited, not to mention legally and practically fraught. And in the give-and-take of the negotiations, it would put a huge question mark over the rights of the two million Britons living in continental Europe.

Nevertheless, many of those who voted for Brexit because they wanted migrant numbers to fall will be forgiven for feeling uneasy about such a generous offer, especially one extended to anyone who arrives before January 2021. Isn’t there a grave danger of encouraging a new influx before the cut-off date?

Then there are the jaw-dropping numbers. The Home Office now predicts up to 3.8million people will apply, 600,000 more than expected ( and sure to be an underestimate).

Truly, this exposes the staggering scale of demographic change in this country after Tony Blair cynically threw open Britain’s borders more than a decade ago.

The Mail recognises that the vast majority of migrants are decent, hardworking people. But influxes on such a vast scale place huge pressure on public services.

And the profoundly disturbing – indeed chilling – rises in extremism and support for far-Right parties across Europe show the grave dangers of liberal political elites ignoring voters’ legitimate concerns.

So yes, we must behave honourably to EU nationals living here who want to stay. But more than anything, once ministers finally get control of our porous borders, Britain needs a sensible and grown up approach to decide how many people we allow in.