Ministers ready to agree reciprocal citizen rights

Britons in EU and EU citizens in UK could retain residency rights

UK ministers are preparing to agree a deal that would see European citizens living in Britain keep their residency rights when the country leaves the EU.

Sources in Strasbourg, where MEPs voted in favour of a tough line on negotiations, said that sign off was expected early in the forthcoming talks.

The agreement would lead to both British citizens in the EU and those from the continent living in the UK continue under current conditions as long as they are registered as living in their respective new homes “the day before Brexit”.

It is also understood that the Conservative government thinks agreeing the funding formula to establish how much money the UK owes the EU upon its exit will be relatively straightforward and accepts “they are going to have to pay”.

A UK Government spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister was clear in her letter to the President of the European Council that we should seek an early agreement on the rights of UK nationals in the EU and EU nationals in the UK, on a reciprocal basis.

“This is a priority issue for the forthcoming negotiations and as the Prime Minister has emphasised, we will always put the interests of citizens first.”

MEPs backed by a margin of 560-133 a resolution tabled by the leaders of the main party groupings, which set out red lines for the withdrawal negotiations under Article 50 of the EU treaties.

The parliament – which has an effective veto on the deal reached after two years of talks – insisted Britain must meet all its financial obligations and rejected “cherry-picking” of privileged access to the single market for sectors of such as financial services.

MEPs heard the European Commission’s president Jean-Claude Juncker and chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier restate their rejection of Theresa May’s appeal for divorce and trade talks to be held in parallel, insisting that the EU could not deal with its future relations with the UK until the terms of withdrawal were “fully resolved”.

Guy Verhofstadt, the parliament’s Brexit coordinator, did not give a figure for Britain’s exit bill during a press conference, saying he wanted to agree a set of principles for the payment.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: “Labour’s six tests for the final Brexit deal made clear that there can be no drop in EU-derived rights and protections.”