Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Dunne Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[James Duddridge]

I welcome my hon. Friend to the House and can certainly confirm that.

[Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con)]

8. What discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on the level of fees payable by EU citizens who are the spouse of a UK national and continue to reside in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (James Duddridge)]

The Secretary of State regularly discusses the rights of EU citizens with the Home Secretary and other Cabinet colleagues. To protect the right to reside, EU citizens who are resident at the end of the implementation period must apply for settled status by June 2021. This is a free-of-charge process, and we have already received well over 2.6 million applications to the scheme.

[Philip Dunne]

I am grateful to the Minister for that reply, and obviously I am delighted by the progress that the settlement scheme is making in encouraging EU citizens who are here to remain. In common with many colleagues in the House, I spent a number of days in the last few weeks knocking on doors and talking to my constituents. One of the people I came across was an EU citizen—an Italian who was married to a British lady and had lived here for over 50 years, working all the time and paying his taxes. He wanted to become a British citizen, but is faced with an application fee of £1,700. Does my hon. Friend think that that is fair? Is there something that we can do to encourage people who have lived here for a long time to become British citizens?

[James Duddridge]

I am more than happy to meet my right hon. Friend to talk about the specifics of that case and the EU settlement scheme. Yesterday the Minister for immigration talked about why that issue would not be covered by the withdrawal agreement Bill, but I am more than happy to chat to my right hon. Friend about that individual case.