Welcome to Brexit Britain: thousands of EU nationals face being criminalised – Christine Jardine

The Liberal Democrats tried to amend the EU Withdrawal Bill to ensure Boris Johnson keeps his promises to EU nationals in the UK, but his Government whipped Tory MPs to vote the amendment down, writes Christine Jardine.

Demonstrators create a human chain from Parliament Square to Downing Street to call on the Government to clarify the position of EU nationals living in the UK after Brexit (Picture: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images)

A lovely lady walked into my office this week asking for advice.

She was an Italian citizen who has lived and taught in this country, in Edinburgh, since 1962.

She loves Scotland and wanted to know how she could go about staying here now that the UK will no longer be part of the EU.

While one of the team found her the information she needs, we chatted about the more than half a century she has called this country home.

She joked that she has a plot in the cemetery here so that if worst comes to worst there is a little bit of Scotland that is all hers.

Before we joined the then EEC, she used to have to visit the police station every six months to register as an alien.

I am not about to launch into yet another rehearsal of the arguments about the benefits of the EU and the long-term damage about to be done to our economy and our future by leaving.

That battle has been lost.

Neither do I want to get embroiled in pointless arguments about how Scotland voted. We are part of the UK.

This coming Friday at 11pm, the UK will cease to be part of the largest most successful trading block in the world. Sadly that chapter will have ended.

As we enter the transition period, the issue will be ensuring that we find a way to minimise the long-term economic impact, and that when this strange limbo runs out at the end of the year we do not crash out with all the consequences that could bring.

But that woman’s fleeting visit left me with a huge sense of loss.

Unashamedly pro-European

It is the same feeling I felt when I saw photos posted on social media by friends and colleagues preparing to leave the European Parliament for the last time.

Pictures of them participating in their final committee votes, handing over their security passes, saying goodbye to staff, and packing up their offices.

Elected last May, when the Lib Dems finished ahead of both the Tories and Labour in a national election for the first time in over 100 years, our 16 MEPs took their seats in the knowledge that their stint in Brussels was likely to be a short one.

But the inevitable finality of their term didn’t stop them from getting stuck in and showing what a dynamic and unashamedly pro-European delegation of British MEPs can do when working side-by-side with our neighbours to tackle challenges that simply don’t respect national borders.

Their hard work over the past seven months has reminded me of the commitment that so many of us in this country continue to have to the ideals for which the European Union stands.

Peace. Friendship. Diversity.

Although, as I said, it is sadly time to accept that the UK will be leaving the EU this week, that doesn’t mean we will give up on those values.

And it is down to all of us, both inside and outside Parliament, to hold the Government’s feet to the fire and ensure that their commitments to those who will be the most profoundly impacted by Brexit are honoured.

This week in Parliament they had the chance to do just that, by guaranteeing in law the right for EU citizens to stay in the UK.

The amendment, added to the EU Withdrawal Bill by Liberal Democrat Peers in the House of Lords, simply sought to uphold the promise repeatedly made by Boris Johnson that the rights of EU citizens to remain in the UK would be automatically guaranteed.

Most vulnerable most at risk

But instead of putting politics aside and doing the right thing, the Government whipped its MPs to vote the amendment down and leave EU citizens under a cloud of uncertainty, with no physical proof of their settled status, and with a strict deadline many will be unable to meet.

This means that tens or even hundreds of thousands of otherwise eligible people may find themselves undocumented and criminalised in as little as 18 months’ time. Inevitably, those most at risk will be the most vulnerable: young people in care, the elderly and the marginalised.

The Government also instructed its MPs to vote down provisions which would have maintained the rights of unaccompanied refugee children elsewhere in Europe to be reunited with their family members in the UK.

Whether we’re in or out of Europe, we cannot stand by stand by while ministers use Brexit to undermine the UK’s proud tradition of providing sanctuary to some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

The Lib Dems will continue to fight for these children.

We will push the Home Office to restore the protections for child refugees in Europe, and we have tabled new legislation to allow unaccompanied children in the UK to sponsor close family members to join them.

All of this and more we owe to the people, like that lady who popped into my office, to ensure that we do not lose what we worked so hard to achieve over four decades.

Christine Jardine is the Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West