Boris Johnson's pledge to protect the rights of EU nationals after 31 October is a "contradiction" given the "insurmountable" task facing centres processing those applications, Labour MP and Best for Britain supporter David Lammy has said.
With 2.6 million of the 3.35 million EU nationals in the UK still to apply for settled status under the EU settlement scheme, the task facing application processing centres before we leave the EU has been called "insurmountable".
Best for Britain have estimated each of the 77 centres processing applications will have to get through a staggering 345 per day to protect the rights of EU nationals before 31 October - the date by which Boris Johnson has said he will take the UK out of the EU, "do or die".
Despite the new Prime Minister's pledge to protect the rights of EU nationals after 31 October, this has been rejected by Labour MP and Best for Britain supporter David Lammy, who called the task "insurmountable". For context, the EU settlement scheme beta report pointed out that each application takes 9 days to process and complete.
Commenting, Best for Britain supporter David Lammy MP said:
"Boris Johnson’s commitment to leaving the EU by the end of October and to the protection of EU citizens' rights post-Brexit is a contradiction. EU citizens in Britain and British citizens in the EU will lose their rights on day one after a no-deal Brexit.
"No one should have to go through a long process of applying to live in the place they moved to with every right to live, work and settle. The centres tasked with processing these applications are going to be stretched past breaking point. Let's be real: the challenge they face is insurmountable.
"The only way to fulfil Johnson's pledge to EU nationals is to stop Brexit."
Here is the latest EU settlement scheme report
Here is the EU settlement scheme beta report (page 3 mentions the time taken per application)