Gove promises free UK citizenship for 3.0m EU nationals if he becomes PM
Michael Gove is set to announce on Tuesday a pledge to grant free British citizenship for 3.0m EU nationals and to abolish the need to prove settled status after Brexit if he replaces Theresa May as Prime Minister.
Environment Secretary and now Tory leadership candidate Michael Gove has given his support to a campaign by Conservative party backbencher Alberto Costa that is fighting for EU citizens’ rights post Brexit.
According to the Guardian, Gove believes the pledge honours the promises made to EU citizens by that campaign during the 2016 referendum and will also save them between £1,000 and £2,000 each.
“Michael Gove has fully agreed to adopt my proposals and he will publicly announce that it was wrong to put EU citizens on the negotiation table in the first place,” Costa told the Guardian on Tuesday.
“But he will also go further and offer them British citizenship at no cost if he becomes prime minister. This is Michael’s way of saying to EU nationals: I’m sorry, the Vote Leave campaign was never about EU citizens’ rights.
“He is unambiguously demonstrating that leaving the EU is not about moving the goalposts of citizens’ rights and accordingly, he has my full support as a candidate for the premiership.”
The pledge would help the negotiations with the EU since the issue of the status of European citizens living in the UK after Brexit remained one of the most difficult hurdles that needed to be overcome.
Prime Minister Theresa May was reluctant to commit to granting EU nationals any rights without reciprocal guarantees being extended for British citizens living in the bloc.
A source close to Gove reportedly also said on Tuesday: “Michael Gove is ready to unite the country. Guaranteeing the rights of EU nationals here in the UK through a declaratory scheme, and making a generous offer of citizenship to those lawfully here at the time of the referendum, is a first step in that direction.
“This is simply the right thing to do: honouring the promise of Vote Leave that EU nationals studying, working and living in the UK were welcome to stay. Michael Gove led that campaign and now he’s ready to deliver Brexit”.