Home Office ‘capitulates’: EU transition migrants can stay

EU MIGRANTS who arrive in the UK after Brexit during a two-year transition period will be allowed to stay permanently, the Government has announced.

In a significant climbdown ministers have made a unilateral offer to the EU which would guarantee that citizens arriving after March 2019 would be able to lawfully stay in the UK.

Ministers have yet to secure similar assurances for British citizens living in the European Union, and are instead hoping the EU will “mirror the UK’S offer in their own arrangements”.

The Home Office policy paper was slipped out yesterday afternoon after major speeches by Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, and Sir John Major, the former prime minister.

Lord Green of Deddington, the chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “This means that anyone coming to work, study or be self-sufficient will acquire the right to remain indefinitely and bring their family. This is a complete capitulation to EU demands and, as yet, with no parallel commitment from EU member states. This will lead to a scale of immigration to the UK that the electorate voted against and certainly don’t want to see.”

The policy paper states that EU citizens who come to live and work in the UK during the transition period after March 2019 will be entitled to build up the five years’ continuous residency they need to stay permanently.

However, the Government is insisting that relatives of EU nationals who want to come to the UK after Brexit will have to pass a “minimum income threshold test”, which is currently set at £18,600.

Britain will also insist that EU citizens should be subject to British law, rather than the European Court of Justice, after Brexit. It is likely to lead to further clashes with the European Union.

The policy document states that EU citizens arriving during the transition period “will be able to remain lawfully in the UK working, studying or being self-sufficient for the five years needed to obtain settlement”.

It marks a significant climbdown by the Prime Minister, who vowed last month to end free movement for migrants arriving during transition.