Home Office rejects EU Brexit chief’s remarks on settled status bids

Citizens who miss deadline for application to remain in UK will not face automatic deportation

The Home Office has rejected comments from the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator on EU citizens who remain in the UK, and warned against “misconceptions”.

Guy Verhofstadt said yesterday that he had won assurances from Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay that there would be no automatic deportation of those who miss the deadline to apply for settled status.

And he said, after meeting Mr Barclay in London a day earlier, that the government had conceded over allowing EU citizens to have a hard copy of their settled status confirmation.

But the Home Office had already said extensions would be granted if there are “reasonable grounds” for missing the deadline and added that there has been “no change to our digital approach”.

A statement added that “some of the misconceptions we’ve seen about the settlement scheme have been unhelpful when our focus is on providing reassurance”.

Campaigners raised concerns of another Windrush-style scandal when Home Office Minister Brandon Lewis said in October that EU citizens may be

“

We have made it clear that, where people have reasonable grounds for missing the original deadline, they will be given a further opportunity to apply. HOME OFFICE STATEMENT

forced to leave if they miss the deadline, which is June 30 2021 including a grace period.

With hundreds of thousands of people yet to apply for the right to live and work in the UK after Brexit, Mr Verhofstadt said he had questioned Mr Barclay over previous “contradictions”.

“I wanted to be sure that there is no automatic deportation of these people even after the grace period because it can be people who are very vulnerable,” Mr Verhofstadt told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“The idea would be that even for these people after the grace period they will have the possibility to apply, giving the grounds for why it was not possible to do it within the normal procedures.”

But the Home Office stressed that this was already the case in response to Mr Verhofstadt, who has previously threatened that the European Parliament will veto the Brexit deal if it does not win assurances over EU citizens.

“We have made it clear that, where people have reasonable grounds for missing the original deadline, they will be given a further opportunity to apply,” a statement said.

Mr Verhofstadt also said that those successful in claiming settled status had been told to use a screenshot of their confirmation on their mobile phone as proof but that this could change.

The Home Office replied: “There is no change to our digital approach. It has always been the case that people could print a copy of their confirmation letter, but this can’t be used as evidence of status.

“The EU settlement scheme grants people with a secure, digital status which future-proofs their rights.”

Picture: PA. The European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt.