As Burnham calls for an “honest discussion” about a return to freedom of movement with the EU, the EU scheme meant to wind down after Brexit is still waving in thousands of people from outside Europe. Is anyone checking the door?
Some 6,709 non-Europeans got visas through the EU Settlement Scheme in 2025, almost five years after the June 2021 deadline. That includes 1,124 Indian nationals, 855 Somalis and 791 Pakistanis. Over the three years to December 2025 there were 78,785 applications from non-Europeans, with 33,658 granted…
Virtually all of them came through the EUSS ‘Family Permit’ – spouses, ‘durable partners’, dependent children, and parents of EU citizens here. So long as they can show the relationship started before Brexit, there is no cut-off at all. A BBC investigation found 365 sham marriages used to game the scheme between March 2018 and September 2021. One Ghanaian woman was allowed to stay despite not turning up to her own ‘wedding’…
DWP figures from February show 9.2% of Universal Credit claimants have EUSS settled status. The Home Office claims it has “no evidence” of abuse and says the Withdrawal Agreement legally obliges it to keep taking late applications. 365 sham marriages not enough evidence…
Burnham now says he will “never move ahead of the British public when it comes to Brexit”. How much worse will it get with full Freedom of Movement?
Robert Jenrick told a rally on Monday:
“They say Chancellors are either undertakers or bookies. This one is an ostrich – and when the Chancellor buries his head in the sand, the rest of us, we’re left staring at his you know what.”