Theresa May has gone out of her way to repeatedly reassure people that Brexit means Brexit. But where the Prime Minister has been less eager to offer words of comfort is on the status of EU nationals living and working in Britain. That stony silence has been one of the big themes of the Conservative party’s conference this year. May’s refusal to commit has left a question mark dangling over millions of people. At a Spectator fringe event last night, David Davis went as far as any member of Government (or, indeed, any loyal cabinet minister) to reassuring those from the EU that they wouldn’t be removed from Britain.
When challenged by an Italian national, who had been living in Britain for ten years (and working here for five), he was asked why Theresa May seemed so cavalier about his status to stay in Britain. Here’s what Davis said in response:
‘We have no intention of deporting people or treating people who, through no fault of their own, are here during the middle of a transition to their own country, but what we have to do is also keep in mind the rights of British citizens abroad and so we’ll fix the whole thing together and I’m absolutely 100 per cent sure we’ll be able to do that and there will be no difficulty for anybody.’
Davis’s comments – as well as bypassing a Downing Street which keeps up its reticence on the subject – also show up negotiations over the future of Britain’s three million EU nationals for what they are: a charade.
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