Government admits it is 'not ready’ to enforce scheme of stopping EU migrants after Brexit
THERESA May’s pledge of not allowing EU citizens the automatic right to remain in the country during a Brexit transition period may not be able to be enforced in time of the UK leaving the EU - as the Home Office has admitted that preparations have “barely begun”.
Theresa May: We want EU citizens to STAY in UK
Mrs May announced this month that EU migrants arriving after March 2019 will not get an automatic right to stay.
The Prime Minister has insisted that migrants arriving in the transition period between March 2019 and December 2020 could not expect the same treatment as the 3.2 million EU nationals already in the UK.
The work has barely begun and I don’t think anyone has any confidence that such a new system can be ready for March next year
Campaigners believe that nearly a million more EU citizens could get the right to settle permanently in the UK if the EU gets its way for British borders to stay open to European migrants until 2021.
However, Home Office senior officials have said they would not be able to create a separate system to register exiting EU citizens and new arrivals by March next year.
According to The Times, senior government sources have revealed that preparations for a migrant scheme during the Brexit transition period had “barely begun”.
One source said: “Rightly the focus has been on registering the three million nationals who are already here, and while that has been progressing well there is still a lot of work to do.
“The work has barely begun and I don’t think anyone has any confidence that such a new system can be ready for March next year.”
Speaking of the issue, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “If this were true it would be a sad admission of incompetence at the Home Office and it would be hard to believe that someone as efficient as Amber Rudd would accept such a sorry state of affairs.”
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A Home Office spokesman said: “The prime minister has been clear that during the implementation period there will be a registration system for EU citizens coming to the UK. The precise details of the implementation period are currently being negotiated with the EU, but planning is well under way.”
Mrs May will try to unite her cabinet about what the UK’s relationship with Brussels will look like after Brexit in various speeches over the next few weeks.