Senior Tories furious as think tank urges Labour to give UK citizenship to all EU migrants

SENIOR Tories have blasted proposals by Sir Keir Starmer’s allies to grant British citizenship to millions of EU passport holders.

Influential think tank Labour Together urged the opposition leader to give default citizenship to all EU migrants who have settled in Britain.

It said it will stop people thinking immigrants do not contribute to the economy.

Labour Together argue that the 3.7million EU citizens granted settled status after Brexit should automatically be given British passports.

Settled status enables migrants to live and work in the UK indefinitely — but does not include the right to a passport.

Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis accused Sir Keir of a “Brexit betrayal” by “allowing millions of EU citizens to become UK citizens overnight”.

He said: “This is part of his ‘deal’ with the EU which would see us surrender our borders to his buddies in Brussels.

“Sir Keir just can’t be trusted to back Britain’s borders.”

Christabel Cooper, director of research at Labour Together, said: “Our new research shows that policies encouraging immigrants to take British citizenship and which promote integration are popular.”

However, a Labour spokesman said: “This report does not reflect Labour Party policy.

“Labour’s focus is on fixing the immigration and asylum system, which is broken after 14 years of Tory mismanagement.”