Javid tells EU: Hands off expats in Spain

EXPATS should not be charged for living abroad after Brexit, the Home Secretary has told European leaders.

Sajid Javid is urging officials in Brussels to ensure that ‘settled status fees’ are not introduced for the 1.3 million Britons living on the Continent.

He made the plea after Theresa May scrapped a planned £65 fee for EU citizens who want to remain in the UK.

Sources have told The Mail on Sunday that Mr Javid wrote on Friday to Guy Verhofstadt, the Brexit co-ordinator in the European Parliament, and Michel Barnier, the European Commission’s chief negotiator, calling for Britons abroad to be given peace of mind.

He is understood to have told them that UK nationals living in the EU ‘deserve the same certainty and reassurance that we have given their counterparts living here’, pointing out the ‘valuable contribution’ that expats make to Europe.

Mr Javid asked Mr Verhofstadt to ‘press’ EU countries for a guarantee that there will be no cost for Britons living abroad and said that ensuring expats do not have to pay a settlement fee would give the message ‘loud and clear’ that they are welcome to stay.

Mr Verhofstadt, who is in favour of fees being scrapped, said last week: ‘The decision of Theresa May to waive settled status fees was a welcome one. It’s time for the EU27 to show the same spirit and reciprocate.’

EU ambassadors agreed on Friday that British citizens travelling to the border checkfree Schengen area after Brexit would be allowed to do so without visas.