Boris swears to protect EU citizens’ rights
BORIS JOHNSON has declared that EU citizens living in Britain will have their rights protected “whatever happens” after Brexit.
The Foreign Secretary went significantly further than Theresa May as he suggested Britain will guarantee citizens’ rights even if it leaves without a deal. But the Prime Minister has said the UK will only protect the rights in exchange for similar guarantees to British citizens living in Europe. Mr Johnson’s apparent unilateral offer was made in an address to the Belvedere Forum on Polish-uk relations last week and came to light when a clip of his comments was put on Twitter by Poland’s UK embassy.
He said: “We have 30,000 businesses in this country that are Polish. We have one million Poles in Britain. We are thoroughly blessed, we are lucky.
“And I have only one message for you all tonight: you are loved, you are welcome, your rights will be protected whatever happens. Yes. You are recording this? Your rights will be protected whatever happens.” His intervention appeared to conflict with comments he made to MPS in the Commons earlier that day. Mr Johnson had then said it was “up to our friends and partners in the EU now to look seriously at the offer we are making, and, particularly on citizens, to make progress”.
The Foreign Office said that Mr Johnson had been emphasising the Government’s intention to secure EU citizen’s rights as a priority in Brexit negotiations.
THE European Union has secretly begun preparing for Britain to leave without a deal, a senior adviser to Michel Barnier has admitted.
Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, said earlier this month that EU leaders are not working on a “no-deal” scenario and are negotiating in “good faith”.
Emmanuel Macron, the French President, last week accused Britain of “bluffing” by threatening to leave the EU without a deal.
However, Stefaan de Rynck, an adviser to Mr Barnier – the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator – yesterday conceded that preparations are under way.
Speaking at the Institute for Government think tank, he said: “On advertising no deal, it is not something we want to advertise, oversell. There is a clear negative impact from no deal, I think that is clear, for both sides … especially for the UK economy, but it is not a scenario that we want to work towards.
“We are preparing for it, that is for sure, the 27, but it is not something we in the negotiation room want to bring in that negotiation room.”
Ministers yesterday suggested that separate Brexit legislation will be needed to cover a transition period after the UK has left the EU.
Steve Baker, a Brexit minister, said that the EU withdrawal bill currently going through the Commons does not cover the transition.
It means that there could be another opportunity for pro-european rebels to table amendments in a bid to frustrate the Government’s plans for Brexit.
It came as Nicky Morgan, a former Cabinet minister, said that she and other pro-european Tory MPS are “deadly serious” about rebelling in a bid to force the Government to give Parliament a vote on the final deal before the UK leaves the EU.
The European Union is expected to offer Mrs May a transition period after Brexit lasting just 20 months, it was reported yesterday.
The prime minister has previously said that she wants a transition period lasting “about” two years, leaving open the option of it taking significantly longer. However, senior EU officials are said to have stipulated that any transition period must come to an end by Dec 31 2020.
The news is likely to be welcomed by Eurosceptics including Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, who has argued for a “speedy” transition.
At the Exiting the European Union Committee, Mr Baker was yesterday accused of having not fully read reports about the impact of leaving the European Union on different sectors of the UK economy, but he insisted that he was kept up to date with the findings but had not read all as he had to “ruthlessly prioritise our time”.
The prime minister has also been challenged over whether she has read the documents, which have not been made public because of official concerns they could damage the Government’s negotiating position.