May to EU migrants: We want you to stay

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said she wants EU citizens already legally living in Britain to stay after Brexit.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaking outside No. 10 Downing Street after meeting the Queen in London.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaking outside No. 10 Downing Street after meeting the Queen in London. Source: EPA. ANDY RAIN

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has unveiled details of her plan to protect the rights of EU citizens living in Britain, saying the government would work to offer them the same health, medical and educational benefits as British citizens.

An agreement on the post-Brexit rights of EU nationals is one of the easier issues for the two sides to agree on, with both Britain and the rest of the bloc wanting to provide assurances to millions of their citizens living abroad.

Opposition MPs have demanded clarity on what the changes mean for adult children of EU nationals, who had grown up in Britain but now lived abroad.

And a major sticking point, which Brexit minister David Davis said at the weekend would be the row of the summer, was that Britain would not defer to rulings from the European Court of Justice - an institution the EU says must be involved.

The two sides must also decide when the cut-off point applies.

"I want to completely reassure people that under these plans, no EU citizen currently in the UK lawfully will be asked to leave at the point the UK leaves the EU. We want you to stay," May said.

May made her pitch just hours after winning a deal to prop up her minority government with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, necessary to give her a better chance of passing laws to ease the path of Brexit.

A 15-page document giving a point-by-point explanation of the proposals said Britain would allow current immigrants from the EU to retain healthcare and other benefits that are more generous than those given to migrants from elsewhere.

It said those who had lived in Britain for five years by an as yet unspecified cut-off point could stay for life.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party, said May's reduced stature after losing her parliamentary majority in an election on June 8, meant that she could no longer wring out a good deal for Britain from the EU.

"She wanted a landslide and she lost her majority. Now her mandate is in tatters, but the prime minister still insists she's the best person to get a good deal for Britain," Corbyn said.

"The truth is this country needs a new approach to Brexit."


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Source: AAP



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