Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is their intention that, in the event of the UK leaving the EU, citizens of EU member states who had previously settled in the UK would be entitled automatically to remain; and if not, what contingency plans they are making to defend any legal challenges or claims for compensation under the European Convention on Human Rights that might arise from individuals who are subject to removal.

Lord Keen of Elie

As set out in the Government’s White Paper: ‘The process for withdrawing from the European Union’, published on 29 February, the withdrawal process is unprecedented. No country has ever used Article 50 – it is untested. There is a great deal of uncertainty about how it would work.

UK citizens get the right to live and work in the other 27 member states from our membership of the EU. If the UK voted to leave the EU, the Government would do all it could to secure a positive outcome for the country, but there would be no requirement under EU law for these rights to be maintained.