Theresa May insists EU nationals' families will not be broken up after Brexit

EU nationals living in Britain will not be separated from their families as a result of Brexit, Theresa May has said.

Setting out plans for protecting EU nationals’ rights once the UK leaves the bloc, the Prime Minister said “no families will be split up.”

Mrs May said EU nationals could still bring dependent family members to join them in the country, and will be able to apply for settled status after five years.

"No families will be split up. Family dependants who join a qualifying EU citizen here before the UK's exit will be able to apply for settled status after five years," she told MPs in a Commons statement.

"After the UK has left the European Union, EU citizens with settled status will be able to bring family members from overseas on the same terms as British nationals."

Mrs May, who outlined her plans to fellow EU leaders at last week's Brussels summit, said the proposals would offer certainty for the 3.2 million EU nationals currently resident in the UK.

She said: "Under these plans, no EU citizen currently in the UK lawfully will be asked to leave at the point the UK leaves the EU.”

A Government paper outlines how EU nationals with five years' continuous residence in the UK would be able to apply for "settled status" - effectively granting them indefinite leave to remain.

"They will be treated as if they were UK citizens for healthcare, benefits and pensions," Mrs May told the House.

But Jeremy Corbyn said the offers to assure the rights of EU citizens are "too little, too late" and prove the Government would use people as "bargaining chips" over Brexit.

The Labour leader said guarantees for EU nationals in Britain should have been made directly after the vote to leave the European Union last year, rather than waiting until "complex and delicate" trade negotiations began.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Corbyn said: "The Prime Minister went to Brussels last week to make what she described as a generous offer to EU nationals in this country.

"The truth is it is too little, too late. That could have been done and should have been done a year ago when Labour put that very proposal to the House of Commons.

"But by making an offer only after the negotiations have begun, the Prime Minister has dragged the issue of EU citizens and families deep into the complex and delicate negotiations of our future trade relations with the European Union, which she herself has been willing to say may result in failure.

"This isn't a generous offer. This is confirmation the Government is prepared to use people as bargaining chips."