UK argues against EU citizens having special migration rights
Home secretary says post-Brexit immigration regime should treat everyone equally
Home secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday defended the principle of denying EU citizens preferential rights to live and work in the UK after Brexit.
If his stance is adopted by the government, it could lead to a clash with the EU, which has said the bloc wants a post-Brexit partnership with the UK to include “ambitious provisions on the movement of natural persons”.
However, Mr Javid acknowledged the EU could win concessions in this area by indicating the bloc would be in a strong position to negotiate special rights for its citizens to live and work in the UK as part of a trade deal with Britain that is supposed to take effect after the Brexit transition period.
Mr Javid was giving evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee ahead of the publication this week of the government’s white paper about the UK’s future relationship with the EU.
He said the document would include a chapter on immigration — but that most of the government’s long-term strategy in this area would be outlined in a separate white paper due to be published in October.
He also made it clear that he would regard EU citizens as having no automatic qualification to better rights to visit, live and work in the UK than people from other countries around the world.
“We still want to be open to talent from across the world that can help us in some parts of our economy,” said Mr Javid. “There’s no magical reason it should be only from the EU and I think being a global Britain means that should be from across the world.”
Mr Javid’s comments were focused on EU citizens wanting to come to the UK after the Brexit transition period ends in December 2020.
Last month, he said EU citizens who have lived in the UK for at least five years would be eligible for a new “settled status” in the country after Brexit. Up to 3.8m people are expected to apply for this status.
Meanwhile, Mr Javid declined a chance to defend the government’s policy of reducing annual net immigration to below 100,000 — a target it has come nowhere near hitting since it was adopted in 2010, including while Theresa May was home secretary.
When asked if he would like to scrap the policy, he smiled and said: “Next question.”