CARDENDEN and Kinglassie MP, Peter Grant, has welcomed a new report calling for an end to the uncertainty facing around 3 million EU nationals living in the UK.

The Commons ‘Brexit’ Select Committee published the report on Friday. It calls on the UK Government to give a unilateral guarantee that all EU nationals living here will be allowed to stay after the UK leaves the EU.

Committee member Mr Grant, MP for Glenrothes and Central Fife, said: "I've been contacted by over 100 EU nationals from my constituency alone. These are people who have a legal right to be here.

"They work in our local businesses and public services. They support community organisations in their communities. Fife is their home, it's where they belong. No-one has the right to treat them like chips in a game of poker".

Mr Grant said the report had been scathing in its criticism of the process EU nationals have to go through to prove their right to remain in the UK.

The system was described as "complex", "onerous", "disproportionately burdensome" and even "not fit for purpose".

Mr Grant said: "I have people with university level qualifications telling me they can't understand the 85 page form they have to fill in, seven times longer than anywhere else in the EU.

"People who have lived here for 25 years are being asked for the exact dates of every overseas holiday they've taken during that time. A single mistake in their application means they get a letter from the Home Office telling them they should prepare to leave the UK and threatening them with deportation if they don't. Instead of welcoming these people the UK Government is trying to intimidate them into leaving".

Peter concluded: "The committee that wrote this report has a built-in Tory majority and a majority who voted for Article 50. Its members include some of the most hardened Brexiteers in Parliament. Even they are saying the Government needs to act.".