Theresa May’s government is set to surrender to European Union demands that mass, uncontrolled immigration continues for years after Brexit, an official familiar with talks has revealed.
David Davis, the Secretary of State for Brexit, is expected to give a statement to Parliament today outlining his government’s official response to the EU’s latest negotiating guidelines for the so-called ‘transition’ period.
According to a British official who spoke to Politico, the Government will not reject, explicitly, EU demands that all new arrivals during the ‘transition’ are given the same rights as those coming before Brexit day — despite Mrs. May’s promises that Free Movement will officially end in 2019.
The ‘transition period’ was initially touted as lasting for two years, but recent reports suggest the government will propose making it open-ended, with no specific end date fixed.
Britain had initially wanted the cut-off date for new migrants being given full rights to be the 29th of March last year, when Article 50 was triggered, to stop a last-minute rush of new arrivals.
In a deal struck in December last year, the EU and UK said they had verbally agreed to set the cut off days as the Brexit date in 2019.
However, the EU backtracked in January this year, calling for migrants coming during ‘transition’ to be able to stay, and the Brexit co-ordinator for the European Parliament’s said last week that limiting migration in the transition would be “unacceptable.”
Just this month, Mrs. May was still insisting that EU migrants arriving during the ‘transition’ period would be treated differently to those who arrived before, but Home Office sources now say creating a two-tier system in time will be difficult.
However, a Whitehall source told Politico last night that the government was not backing down on migration — at least, not necessarily: “We are not conceding it – but we are also not putting a roadblock in the way at the outset.”
Britain is also expected to call for a mechanism to protect the itself from “harm” caused by new EU rules and directives introduced during the transition, as the UK will not be able to influence these while continuing to be subject to them.
Meanwhile, in an update to their negotiating position published on Wednesday night, Brussels laid down a new set of red lines that contradict some of Mrs. May own stated ambitions for the negotiations.
The documents reject the Prime Minister’s so-called “three baskets” approach set out in her Florence speech, regarding partial divergence from EU rules and regulations. They insist the “integrity” of EU rules will not be compromised.