Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore highlighted to Mayor Sadiq Khan the importance of respect for the human rights of EU nationals living in London, and of British  nationals living in other EU countries,  during Mayor’s Question Time today (video attached)

Mr Dismore asked the Mayor:

‘Given the large number of Londoners now living abroad and the large number of EU nationals living in London, what are you doing to ensure their human rights are respected by the Government, and will you include in your budget resources to campaign for fair treatment for EU nationals in London affected by Brexit, and will you include respect for EU Londoners’ human rights in your forthcoming Brexit paper?’ Isn’t it time the Government stopped treating them as negotiating pawns?

The Mayor responded positively and agreed with Mr Dismore that Human Rights are universal and should be universally respected.

Mr Dismore commented that Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights recently reported that

“The Government seemed unacceptably reluctant to discuss the issue of human rights after Brexit. The Minister of State responsible for human rights was either unwilling or unable to tell us what the Government saw as the most significant human rights issues that would arise when the UK exits the EU.”

Mr Dismore also argued that there was increasing and compelling evidence that many  EU nationals who have been in the UK for over five years, some for decades,  will not currently meet the criteria for permanent residency, for example because they were parents  with career breaks and did not take up private health insurance which they didn’t realise they needed to do in the first place. This has resulted in really stressful insecurity and probably was in breach of Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention.