LONDON—Some European Union citizens may not be allowed to stay in Britain after the U.K. leaves the bloc, the U.K. minister in charge of negotiating the divorce has said.
Brexit Secretary David Davis told the Mail on Sunday newspaper that he wants “a generous settlement for EU migrants here now and a generous settlement for British citizens in the EU.”
He dismissed suggestions the estimated 3 million EU nationals in Britain might have to leave, but said if there was a surge in arrivals before the deadline, the British government may have to set a cutoff date.
“We may have to say that the right to indefinite leave to remain protection only applies before a certain date,” he said. “But you have to make those judgments on reality, not speculation.”
A desire to reduce immigration from other EU nations was a key reason many Britons voted last month to leave the EU. Under the bloc’s rules, EU nationals can move feely among member states, and Britain has seen its population swelled by hundreds of thousands of new EU arrivals in recent years.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has been criticized for refusing to guarantee the right of EU citizens to remain in Britain after a British exit—something that is more than two years away. She says she needs to ensure that hundreds of thousands of Britons living in other EU countries get the same right.
Britain’s vote to leave the EU has unleashed political and economic turmoil, as people and markets absorb the uncertainties about the country’s economic future as it leaves the 28-nation single market of 500 million people.
