This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/17/brexit-minister-cut-off-date-eu-migrants-david-davis

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
UK may impose cut-off date on EU migrants, says Brexit minister UK may impose cut-off date on EU migrants, says Brexit minister
(35 minutes later)
EU citizens may be blocked from remaining in the UK permanently even if they arrive before the country leaves the EU, David Davis has said. The government could set a retrospective cut-off date for permitting overseas EU nationals to remain in the UK after the country leaves the union, the minister responsible for the negotiations, David Davis has warned.
The newly appointed Brexit minister said that if a large number of EU migrants enter the UK before the withdrawal from the bloc is completed, they may not be granted leave to remain in the country. Appointed last week to the new role of secretary of state for exiting the European Union, Davis said it might not be possible to warn in advance when this date might fall, as the “sheer generosity” of rights granted to EU nationals could prompt a surge in new arrivals.
“We may have to deal with that. There are a variety of possibilities. We may have to say that the right to indefinite leave to remain protection only applies before a certain date. But you have to make those judgments on reality, not speculation,” Davis told the Mail on Sunday. “One way of dealing with it could be saying: ‘OK, only people who arrived before a certain date get this protection,’” he told Sky News’s Murnaghan show on Sunday. “There are other ways too.”
Britain is bound to observe the freedom of movement rules of the EU, which require it to grant migrants from European countries the right to live and work in the UK, until it has formally exited the union. Davis, a long-time Eurosceptic who had been off the Conservative frontbench since 2008 – when he stepped down as shadow home secretary in a protest over civil liberties – said being too specific in advance could cause difficulties. “If you set a date, that’s when you start the rush,” he said.
Davis said he was committed to securing a good deal for any Brits living in EU countries, as well as the approximately 3 million EU migrants currently living in the UK. “We mustn’t, if we can possibly avoid it, penalise them,” he said on Sky’s Murnaghan on Sunday programme. Theresa May was the only one of the Conservative leadership candidates to say she would not pre-emptively guarantee the rights even of foreign EU nationals already living in Britain before the referendum.
“Number one, I want to see a generous settlement for the people who are here already – they didn’t pick this circumstance, we did,” he told Murnaghan. “We want to do that at the same time that we get a similarly generous settlement for Brits living in the EU. It brought complaints from opponents, notably the shadow home secretary, Andy Burnham, that she was using EU nationals in the UK as “bargaining chips”. A Labour motion calling for rights to be guaranteed passed the Commons earlier this month, but is not binding.
“Some people have said if we make a very generous settlement, as we intend to do, we might see a rush of people. Let’s deal with that issue when we come to it. One way to do that is that only people who arrive before a certain date will get this protection.” Davis said on Sunday that any deals on people in the UK must be done at the same time as arrangements about the 1.2 million Britons living elsewhere in the EU, as it would stop “anybody being used as bargaining counters”.
Davis would not be drawn about when a potential cut-off date could be, saying that to give a date would cause a surge. However, he reiterated the intention of the government to trigger article 50 early in 2017, meaning the UK would formally exit the EU in early 2019. It was important not to make any early promises to people living in the UK, Davis said. “If we make a very generous settlement, as I’d like to do, then people are going to say: ‘Oh but then that’ll attract lots more people in because they want to beat the deadline.’
The government is trying to paint a hopeful picture of Britain’s future post-Brexit, and received a boost on Saturday when Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, called for a free trade deal with Britain as soon as possible. Related: A hard truth for Leave voters: Brexit means big government
After a phone call with Turnbull, Theresa May said: “I have been very clear that this government will make a success of our exit from the European Union. One of the ways we will do this is by embracing the opportunities to strike free trade deals with our partners across the globe. It is very encouraging that one of our closest international partners is already seeking to establish just such a deal. “And so what I’ve said is, let’s deal with that issue when we come to it. One way of dealing with it could be saying: ‘OK, only people who arrived before a certain date get this protection’ – there are other ways too. But we’ve got to do it within the law as it stands because at that point we’ll still be within the European Union.
“This shows that we can make Brexit work for Britain, and the new secretary of state for international trade will be taking this forward in the weeks and months ahead. Britain is an outward-looking and globally minded country, and we will build on this as we forge a new role for ourselves in the world.” “Bear in mind this is only an issue if there is a surge in people arriving, and I don’t think that is by any means certain.”
Trade deals with Britain are currently negotiated within the EU bloc, and Britain is not able to sign any trade deals until it has formally exited the EU. However, May has asked the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, to begin exploring options with Australia. Davis dismissed the idea that speaking even hypothetically about a cut-off date for residency rights could spark a movement of people to the UK. “No it won’t be like that,” he said. “If you set a date, that’s when you start the rush.”
Fox claimed that he was “scoping about a dozen deals outside the EU to be ready for when we leave”. There was no new Labour response to Davis’s comments, but the SNP described them as shameful and indicative of a “nasty party cabinet” under May.
He told the Sunday Times: “We’ve already had a number of countries saying we’d love to do a trade deal with the world’s fifth biggest economy without having to deal with the other 27 members of the EU.” Davis accepted that a cabinet headed by May, who campaigned for the UK to remain in the UK, and including prominent Brexit supporters such as him, Boris Johnson and Liam Fox, meant there would be tensions over the exit strategy.
Davis suggested the UK could trigger article 50, which would begin the formal two-year process of leaving the EU, “early next year”. May has indicated a longer process, saying she hopes to create more national consensus on a post-Brexit future first.
In another issue likely to dominate his new role, Davis said Scotland would not be able to unilaterally halt Brexit, and dismissed the proposal by Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, that her nation could remain in the EU even as the rest of the UK leaves.
“I don’t think that works,” Davis said. “One of our really challenging issues to deal with will be the internal border we have with southern Ireland, and we are not going to go about creating other internal borders inside the United Kingdom.”
He added: “The aim here is to try to address the concerns of people who are basically remain people, who say: ‘Well, we are worried about inward investment, we are worried about trade with Europe, we are worried about all sorts of things.’
“And we will try as best we can – they can’t have a veto because there are 17.5 million people who have given us a mandate, they have told us what to do, we can’t disobey it – but what we can do is to try to do what we can to minimise any disruption or turbulence or problems.”