May urged to end limbo of 3m EU nationals over Brexit
THE SNP has urged Theresa May to take the three million EU nationals living and working in the UK, including 186,000 in Scotland, “out of limbo” and guarantee their citizenship rights.
Stephen Gethins, the party’s Europe spokesman, warned the Prime Minister in a letter that the UK Government’s failure to provide such a guarantee was acting as a “deterrent to the top talent” the country needed to attract.
“As we move towards 2017 the UK Government must finally end its disgraceful treatment of EU nationals and give them the reassurance they will be able to continue living and working in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK,” declared the Fife MP.
“It is unacceptable that families who have done us the honour of making Scotland their home have been left in limbo for more than six months now. The uncertainty and damaging rhetoric we have seen from the UK Government is driving away the top talent we need and it is forcing families to reconsider their future here.”
Mr Gethins argued it was highly detrimental to the UK economy and deeply unfair to families for the Government “to continue to leave EU nationals in limbo” over their residency status and rights.
“EU nationals make a huge and valued contribution to our society; they are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, they benefit our economy, they play a vital role in our public services and they make our society richer and more diverse.
“There is wide consensus that EU nationals living and working here should be guaranteed their residency rights. It is time for Theresa May to listen and act,” added Mr Gethins.
The PM has made clear she wants an early resolution to the issue of citizenship rights for EU nationals living in the UK but has also insisted there has to be reciprocity in the Brexit talks, whereby those Britons living on the continent also have their rights protected too.
Meanwhile, Mrs May was accused of making up her Brexit strategy “on the back of a fag packet” by the Liberal Democrats’ leader Tim Farron after Dave Penman, the head of the senior civil servants union, the FDA, warned her of the under-resourcing of Whitehall
departments to cope with the complexities of the Brexit process.
Elsewhere, Migration Watch UK claimed immigration from the EU would remain high if Britain stayed in the European single market after Brexit.
The group, which campaigns for tighter immigration controls, estimated net migration from the bloc would be unlikely to fall below 155,000 a year in the medium term.
Mr Farron said: “It’s no surprise Ukip’s favourite thinktank is pushing for a hard Brexit that would rip Britain out of the single market, costing jobs and risking the livelihoods of thousands of British people.”
The engineering group Weir, which has a strong presence in Scotland, has said it may consider moving some of its production back to the UK in light of the Brexit vote because the weak pound meant it was now cost effective to base more production here.
Chief executive Jon Stanton said: “It is all about how the demands profile develops from a European and global perspective. That will dictate how we potentially move some production there.”
The firm had already moved some production back to its Todmorden plant in West Yorkshire and it would likely be the plant to initially benefit if more production is returned.