Tory leadership hopeful Andrea Leadsom guarantees three million EU citizens the right to remain in the UK as she hits out at rival Theresa May for using them as 'bargaining chips'By Matt Dathan
Published: 4 July 2016
- Andrea Leadsom hits out at front-runner Theresa May for failing to guarantee the rights of 3m EU nationals already living in the UK
- Guarantees EU nationals will be allowed to remain following Brexit
- But May doesn't want to lose leverage of EU citizens over status of 1.2m British expats living in other EU member states
- Unlike rivals Leadsom vows to complete Brexit talks as soon as possible
- UK needs to 'get on with it' and says process should begin in September
EU citizens already living in the UK must be guaranteed the right to stay and must not be used as 'bargaining chips in Brexit negotiations, Tory leadership hopeful Andrea Leadsom said this morning.
She hit out at the front-runner Theresa May for failing to reassure EU migrants that they will not be deported after Britain officially leaves the EU.
Mrs Leadsom, one of the stars of the Brexit campaign, vowed to keep Brexit negotiations with the EU 'as short as possible' if she wins the race to replace David Cameron as prime minister.
She promised to trigger Article 50 - the formal process for leaving the EU - as soon as she becomes prime minister, distancing herself from all four of her rivals in the leadership contest who have said Britain must take its time over Brexit negotiations.
Both Mrs May and leading Brexit campaigner Michael Gove have said they would not start the process of leaving this calendar year but today Mrs Leadsom said there is a 'need to get on with it'.
Mrs Leadsom insisted not everything needs to be negotiated and completed by the end of the two-year limit for leaving the EU, which begins as soon as a country triggers Article 50.
Launching her leadership campaign - which will culminate on September 9 - Mrs Leadsom compared last month's historic vote to leave the EU to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
She predicted that having won 'our freedom back,' the vote will spread a spirit of democracy across Europe as other EU countries demand to leave too.
As she delivered a key press conference in central London this morning, she sought to reassure uncertainty over the three million EU nationals living in the UK.
'I commit today to guaranteeing the rights of our EU friends who have already come here to live and work,' she said.
'We must give them certainty, there is no way they will be bargaining chips in our negotiations.'
It is a pointed attack on Mrs May, who yesterday said the status of EU citizens living in the UK would be part of Brexit negotiations.
Guaranteeing their right to remain in the UK risks losing a key leverage over the status of 1.2million British expats living in other EU member states, her aides said.
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