Theresa May waives £65 registration fee for EU citizens living in the UK

EU citizens will no longer be hit by a £65 charge to register to stay in the UK after Brexit, Theresa May has announced in a bid to win support from MPs.

Speaking in the Commons, the Prime Minister announced the fee will be waived after lobbying by parliamentarians from across the Commons during talks over Brexit.

May initiated the cross-party talks after her EU withdrawal deal suffered an historic defeat in Parliament last Tuesday.

Updating MPs on her Brexit plan in the Commons, the Prime Minister claimed the key to getting her deal through parliament was to get further assurances from the EU over the backstop plan to ensure there is no hard-border in Northern Ireland.

She refused to give into demands from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and others to take no deal off the table – arguing the only way of doing that was either agreeing a deal or cancelling Brexit all together.

The PM also dismissed calls for another referendum on the issue, warning it would damage “social cohesion” across the UK.

The main change May will seek to get to the withdrawal agreement centres on the so-called ‘backstop’, which locks the UK in a customs union with the EU if no trade deal can be implement.

She said: “With regard to the backstop, despite the changes we have previously agreed, there remain two core issues: the fear that we could be trapped in it permanently; and concerns over its potential impact on our Union if Northern Ireland is treated differently from the rest of the UK.

“So I will be talking further this week to colleagues – including in the DUP – to consider how we might meet our obligations to the people of Northern Ireland and Ireland in a way that can command the greatest possible support in the House.

“I will then take the conclusions of those discussion back to the EU.”