Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Fiona Mactaggart Excerpts
Monday 6th March 2017

(7 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Amber Rudd Portrait Amber Rudd
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My hon. Friend makes the very good point that EU citizens here have existing rights and that we need to ensure that equivalent rights are extended to UK citizens in the EU.

Fiona Mactaggart Portrait Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab)
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The Home Secretary advises Members to tell their EU constituents that they are safe, and many of us have been doing that, but, frankly, they need to hear it from her and from the Prime Minister. We really need the Government to step up and say to those individuals that their lives here in Britain are secure, at the same time as trying to ensure that the people who went from Britain to Spain will be equally secure.

Amber Rudd Portrait Amber Rudd
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I understand the concerns that the right hon. Lady has raised. We have all experienced this as MPs in our surgeries. My point to the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Brendan O’Hara) was that as MPs we can give that reassurance that EU citizens are valued here and that it is the Prime Minister’s intention to do that. We will make it a priority as we begin the EU negotiations.