EU nationals living in the UK must not be forced into a post-Brexit “Checkpoint Charlie” situation, one of the candidates for the Tory leadership has insisted as MPs prepare to cast the first ballots in the bitter contest.
Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb attacked the stance taken by front-runner for the Tory crown, Home Secretary Theresa May, after she refused to give firm assurances on the future status of the three million EU citizens resident in Britain.
Mr Crabb said EU nationals should be given guarantees now rather than waiting for Brexit negotiations involving the status of the 1.2 million Britons living in other EU countries.
“The idea that we will be at some kind of Checkpoint Charlie scenario where we are arguing over trading people living in each other’s countries – that is not going to happen.
“There is a danger here that we slip into a mindset of regarding the people who lead countries across the English Channel in Europe as our enemies – they are not,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Putting clear blue water between himself and other candidates, Mr Crabb also called for a massive borrowing programme to fund investment.
The minister wants to issue £20 billion worth of bonds each year for five years to invest in infrastructure.
Mr Crabb warned against rushing into invoking the formal withdrawal mechanism from the EU until the Government worked out what it wanted from the negotiations.
The minister, who voted against same-sex marriage, said claims on social media that he supported so-called “gay cure therapies” were fabricated.
“This is complete falsehood spread by political opponents,” he said.
The intervention came as Education Secretary Nicky Morgan insisted the next Tory leader must come from the Leave camp.
Asked about accusations the candidate she supports, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, stabbed Boris Johnson in the back by abandoning the ex-London mayor’s campaign team and standing against him for the leadership, Ms Morgan said: “I would consider that to be politics where people really care about the outcomes, and they care what needs to be done for the country.”
The move came as Conservative MPs are to cast their votes in the first ballot in the leadership race after Mr Johnson backed fellow Leave campaigner, energy minister Andrea Leadsom.
At hustings on Monday, Mrs May strongly defended her insistence that the status of EU nationals living in the UK must be part of the Brexit negotiations after a furious backlash from Tory MPs.
Mrs May sought further to burnish her leadership credentials, calling for MPs to be given a vote on the renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent before Parliament breaks for the summer.
Mrs May goes into the first round of voting with a clear lead among MPs but the contest will be decided by grassroots members throughout the country.
She is joined on the ballot paper by Mrs Leadsom, Mr Gove, Mr Crabb and former defence secretary Liam Fox.
The candidate who finishes last will be eliminated, and further votes of MPs will be held – with the next due on Thursday – until the field is whittled down to a shortlist of two who will go forward into the final postal ballot of the entire party membership.
