Expats ‘bargaining chips’ in EU talks

The UK government has been accused of using expats as ‘bargaining chips’ even before official Brexit talks begin.

Labour MP Gisela Stuart, a prominent Leave campaigner who was born in Germany and moved to the UK in 1974, had asked the government for clarification on the rights of EU nationals currently living in the UK.

It followed an interview over the weekend in which the home secretary Theresa May said she could not guarantee the rights of EU nationals who were already in the country.

In response, junior Home Office minister James Brokenshire reiterated the government’s position, saying it could give temporary assurances to EU nationals, and that their status in coming years was a matter for a new prime minister and negotiations.

Mrs Stuart described the government’s position as “deeply, deeply offensive” and said that “People are not bargaining chips”.

The shadow home secretary Andy Burnham, whose wife is Dutch, said that EU nationals living in the UK had had the “rug pulled from under them” and said the government was “creating the conditions for the unwelcoming climate to continue and the rises in xenophobic and racist abuse we have seen rising in recent days”.

The position of the Home Office, led by current home secretary and Conservative Party leadership forerunner Theresa May, is at odds with her rivals.

Mrs May has said the rights of expats needed to be examined as part of discussions with the EU, while her rivals in the Tory leadership vote, which begins today, have all spoken in immediate support of the rights of expats.

Andrea Leadsom has said she is committed to guaranteeing the rights of the EU nationals who have already come to the UK to live and work. “We must give them certainty, there is no way they will be bargaining chips in our negotiations,” she said.

Stephen Crabb has said he "would allow EU citizens already in UK to continue their lives here” and expected the same for British expats in the EU. “People are not bargaining chips," he added.

Michael Gove has said that “EU citizens already lawfully resident in the United Kingdom must retain their right of residence” and Liam Fox has said it would would be "sensible" to allow EU nationals to stay.