In reply to baron:
> While the UK government has a ready supply of willing workers from European countries they have no need to address the problems of the disaffected workers and underclass in the U.K.So the government will fudge the issue of migration and allow existing migrants to stay.As you say, the consequences to the economy of withdrawing the right to work would be too great for this government to face.There'll be a dressing up of the facts and little will change. After all most MPs, including Mrs May, are retainers.Unless the EU screws up the negotiations.
What you fail to see, is that the government is not interested in the economy, they are interested in staying in power.
It doesn't really matter to them if the economy crashes, as long as they can blame some other people for it. As it is now their core electorate is more interested in reducing net migration than in the economy. So that's what they'll do.
My prediction : some sort of deal will be struck for EU nationals to be able to stay, but there will be all sorts of caveats, loss of rights, administrative harassment, and arbitrary decisions, and people will feel compelled to leave over a several years, and that's going to go a long way to help achieve her net migration target.
I also expect that there won't be any more right to appeal immigration decisions from the home office, currently right of appeal is guaranteed by the ECHR, I suspect queen Teresa will want to get us out of it as possible.
Basically I expect a face aving deal, bit in practice EU immigrants will be pushed out of the back door. It's very simple, it is mathematically near impossible for Theresa May to achieve her net migration target of 100,000 without getting people to leave.
Post edited at 13:10