Ed Everett/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by)
On 8 February, the EU (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons, by 494 votes to 122. MPs rejected all amendments to the 133-word bill. This piece concerns the rejection, by 332 votes to 290, of an amendment tabled by Harriet Harman, Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR). This amendment was designed to ensure that post-Brexit rights of non-UK EU citizens “lawfully resident in the UK on 23 June 2016” will be guaranteed before the triggering of Article 50 and irrespective of the outcome of negotiations between the UK and EU institutions.
The Commons debate revealed little zeal among MPs for making non-UK EU citizens’ status conditional upon reciprocity, let alone desire for en masse expulsion, should negotiations fail.
