Lawyers back Article 50 amendment

Aug 12, 2019

Written By Jack J Collins, Editor of AllAboutLaw.co.uk

Leading lawyers, economists and businesses have urged MPs to put through an amendment to Article 50 which will give the 3 million EU nationals living in Britain guaranteed rights to remain.

The Britain in Europe group is asking MPs from all parties to support the amendment on EU residence rights which was forwarded by Harriet Harman on behalf of the Joint Committee of Human Rights.

The think tank, based at Brunel University London, claims that EU citizens living in the UK should not be adversely affected by Brexit negotiations once Article 50 is triggered. Instead, they say, Britain has a legal and moral duty to protect the rights of its EU citizens to plan their future in this country.

“These 3 million people are not bargaining chips,” said Dr Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos, Britain in Europe Director and senior lecturer at Brunel Law School. Their lives here – their families, their jobs, their friends, their hobbies – cannot be negotiated away.

“Legally, morally and pragmatically, this is the position that the UK Government should have adopted immediately after the Referendum”, he continued. “As Harriet Harman said during debate in Parliament, some EU citizens ‘have been here for decades’ and ‘it is unthinkable that they would be deported, families divided, because we’ve decided to leave the EU’.”

The amendment aims to guarantee residence rights of EU citizens lawfully in the UK at the time of the referendum vote on 23 June 2016.

Without the amendment, the think tank says Britain would be violating the European Convention on Human Rights by depriving EU nationals legally living in Britain of the right to enjoy private and family life in the UK post-Brexit.

The amendment has 41 signatures from across the House of Commons so far, including from Rt Hon MPs Nick Clegg, Yvette Cooper, Margaret Hodge, Joanna Cherry QC, Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Lefroy.

“Britain in Europe calls on Parliament to support the amendment, and the Government to prioritise investing in implementing it,” said Dr Giannoulopoulos. “The Immigration Service will need to build capacity quickly to tackle the challenge of recognising residence rights for the 3 million EU citizens currently in the UK.”

The think tank also notes that while the amendment is a significant step in the right direction, it does not go far enough, because it excludes residents arriving in the UK after the date of the referendum. Until the UK has formally left the EU, it argues these citizens retain full rights to move to the UK, and to work and reside here.

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