Open Letter to Angela Rayner
Subject: Urgent Legislative Reform Needed to Protect EU Citizens and Their Families Post-Brexit
Dear Ms Rayner,
I write to draw your urgent attention to a growing injustice affecting European Union citizens and their non-EU family members residing in the United Kingdom—individuals who, despite being lawfully present under the terms of the EU–UK Withdrawal Agreement, now find themselves in legal and financial limbo due to technical failures in the implementation of the EU Settlement Scheme.
At the heart of this issue lies a fundamental misalignment between the spirit of the Withdrawal Agreement and its domestic application by the UK Home Office. The Agreement clearly envisages continuity of residence rights for EU citizens and their families from the date it came into force. However, current legal interpretations—evident in cases such as Case Reference 2025-LON-000462—BHO -v- Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
have instead conditioned those rights on timely registration under the EUSS, effectively penalising individuals for administrative omissions rather than substantive ineligibility.
This rigid interpretation has led to deeply unjust outcomes. In a recent case involving Latvian nationals, legal residents under EU law, the NHS—through the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust—pursued recovery of hospital costs on the basis that the individuals had failed to apply for settled status within the prescribed deadline. This approach is not only disproportionate but fundamentally inconsistent with the protections guaranteed under international treaty obligations.
It is also necessary to confront the deeply troubling way in which individuals who simply failed—often unknowingly—to apply under the EU Settlement Scheme are now being administratively “labelled” as unlawfully present. While historical comparisons must be made with care, the act of retrospectively stripping rights from a clearly identifiable group due to bureaucratic non-compliance raises serious ethical concerns about proportionality and state conduct. Many of these individuals held documentation indicating “permanent residence” under prior EU law and had no reasonable basis to believe that a further application was required. The failure here is not theirs alone; it is institutional. The UK Home Office did not adequately communicate the legal transition, and the UK Border Force continued, in numerous instances, to admit and readmit such individuals without challenge—thereby reinforcing a legitimate expectation of lawful status. It is therefore both unjust and legally questionable for the state to now penalise these individuals for a regulatory gap that it neither clearly communicated nor consistently enforced.
Such outcomes are, frankly, un-British. They undermine long-standing principles of fairness, proportionality, and legal certainty. More troublingly, they risk echoing the injustices witnessed in the Windrush scandal, where individuals who were lawfully entitled to reside were nevertheless subjected to systemic administrative failings and punitive enforcement.
The legal position must be corrected. The United Kingdom should adopt a declaratory system consistent with the Withdrawal Agreement—where rights are recognised as existing automatically from the relevant date, rather than being contingent upon a procedural application. In practical terms, this would mean granting settled or pre-settled status retrospectively to all eligible individuals from the day following the Agreement’s entry into force, irrespective of whether they met the EUSS deadline.
This is not merely a technical adjustment; it is a matter of legal integrity and moral responsibility. The current framework disproportionately affects vulnerable individuals—elderly residents, those with limited digital literacy, and families unaware of the procedural requirements—leaving them exposed to financial hardship, including unexpected healthcare charges, and even potential removal.
As Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, your commitment to social justice and fairness places you in a unique position to champion this issue. I respectfully urge you to raise this matter in Parliament and advocate for legislative reform that aligns domestic law with the United Kingdom’s international obligations. A clear statutory amendment, coupled with a compensation mechanism for those adversely affected, would restore confidence and correct an injustice that is rapidly escalating.
The United Kingdom must not allow administrative technicalities to override fundamental rights. The promise made under the Withdrawal Agreement must be honoured in both letter and spirit.
Yours sincerely,
EU Settlement Scheme Holder