Catherine Bearder (ALDE). – Madam President, five million European citizens are living their lives in constant frustration and a legal limbo. It is a state of anxiety for thousands of EU and UK citizens, with 7% reporting depression, some even suicidal. This is intolerable. The two parties in Brexit need quickly to agree to guarantee EU citizens’ right to reside. This is about treating people with dignity, allowing them to plan their lives, their learning and their loves. The British Government must stop blaming and start acting governmental: no posturing, no calculating, a ‘right out of the gate’ comprehensive agreement.

All that is needed is one bold and generous political act, and British agencies must tear down the barriers they have erected which are causing daily frustration and fear for so many people. Outside the convention of ‘nothing is agreed till everything is agreed’, we need a comprehensive right to reside agreement first and we need that very, very quickly.