Named the EU Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias), it would apply to travellers entering the EU whereby Britons would be treated like residents of any other non-EU country and apply online in advance and pay a fee.
Advertisement
British Home secretary Amber Rudd said yesterday that she was looking at a permits system to control migration from the European Union into the United Kingdom, a proposition which she said “certainly has value”.
In her media interview Rudd, commenting on the European Union waiver proposals, said it was a reminder that it was a two-way negotiating process.
“I think work permits certainly has value, but we’re not ruling anything out at the moment”, Ms Rudd said. We want to get the best outcome possible for the United Kingdom but we can’t rule anything out because we don’t know what might happen.
The Leave campaign’s central message was that the United Kingdom could “take back control” including over the UK’s borders if it left the EU. “Ministers should not just accept there’s a cost of 50 pounds for the average family to go on holiday”.
Ms Rudd said the United Kingdom will be able to control its borders post-Brexit but stressed any measures introduced would have to be “reciprocal”.
Brexit secretary David Davis has underlined the need to “take control” of Britain’s borders and to control immigration, but he has also said that both the United Kingdom and Ireland want to keep an open border in respect of Northern Ireland.
In today’s interview, Ms Rudd said she now accepted the target to get net annual immigration down to “the tens of thousands”, having initially cast doubt on it.
Andy Burnham, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, said a charge on British people wanting to head across the channel on vacation would make it harder for ordinary families to afford a holiday.
“But I am going to make sure that what we do get is in the best interests of the United Kingdom”.
Ms Rudd also addressed her comments from the referendum campaign when she said Boris Johnson was not the person you want to drive you home at the end of an evening out.
He added: “The Home Secretary seems to be sympathetic to an idea that will put a flat £50 tax on the average family Europe hols”.
Advertisement
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron told Sky News: “The British Government need to stop with the empty mantras and get into the detail of arrangements which will affect the holiday and work plans of millions of British people”.
