UK expats will be left the Brexit orphans of no-deal

Denis MacShane is the UK’s former Minister for Europe and author of ’Brexit, No Exit. Why (in the End) Britain Won’t Leave Europe’ (IB Tauris).

In the last quarter of a century millions of UK citizens have got used to living, working and retiring on the European continent as freely as if they were moving from Sheffield to Sherborne, from Glasgow to London, or Birmingham to Barnstaple.

Now these rights are about to be removed, putting those UK citizens at the mercy of whatever local immigration, residence and work permit rules are in place in 27 other EU member states.

In the UK, EU citizens will be given the right to remain, even if there is a no-deal Brexit, according to a leaked government document this week. That is very much to be welcomed (and indeed InFacts has been calling for just such a unilateral gesture for the past two years). But only as far as it goes. It only applies to those already resident before March 29, 2019 – and they will still have to register with the Home Office. Anyone who arrives in the UK later will have no such guarantee.

Meanwhile, in the event of no deal, UK citizens in the EU will be treated as third-country nationals like Russians, Mexicans or Koreans with their rights to live and work in EU member states governed by the sovereign laws of each country. Whose fault is that?

 

Caron Pope, managing partner of Fragomen, a legal firm advising British businesses and individuals abroad, told the Evening Standard: “The heightened prospect of no deal is worrying our clients, not least because of the impact on their people in Europe. The EU needs to get a grip on it and say how they will be treated.”

This comment reflects the ignorance of many in London who think there is an entity called the EU which can dictate to 27 sovereign national states who guard jealously who can live and work in their communities if they are not EU citizens. Only those who have EU citizenship – conferred automatically if their country is in the EU or EEA – enjoy full residence rights.

The UK government insists it is leaving both the EU and the EEA, so UK citizens will automatically lose their EU citizenship. Each country has its own national laws on how non-EU foreigners are treated and Brussels does not dictate what those rules should be.

Fragomen would be better advised to approach all UK MPs to explain to them that there is now great fear amongst expats that the Brexit process will produce one guaranteed group of collateral victims – UK citizens in Europe.

In 2015 every Tory MP stood on an election manifesto promising a “vote for life” for British expats. Yet David Cameron, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn made no effort in 2016 to allow all UK citizens in Europe to vote in the referendum. Only 264,000 expatriates out of an estimated 2 million in Europe had a vote in 2016, when Leave won by 1.3 million.

As the campaign grows for a new consultation on Brexit it is vital that UK citizens living across the Channel should not be forgotten. At the very least the Government should consult them. The best way to defend their existing rights is by not leaving the EU. And if a new referendum is agreed by MPs then all UK citizens should have a right to vote on their future whether they live in Bradford, Benidorm or Bergerac.