UK ministers refuse to give guarantees over EU nationals' status

Theresa May - PA

Conservative ministers have refused to guarantee the right of EU citizens' right to remain in the UK without similar commitments from other countries towards Britons living overseas.

The UK Government faced calls in the Commons to clarify the position after the UK vote to pull out of the European Union.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said there would be "no immediate change" affecting EU citizens.

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However, the minister said the question of whether to offer an absolute guarantee would be a decision for the next Prime Minister, who will be installed when the Conservatives elect a successor to David Cameron.

"I am not in a position to make new policy announcements this afternoon," he told MPs.

Brokenshire was responding to an urgent question in the Commons from Labour MP and Brexit campaigner Gisela Stuart.

Stuart said the country should not "retrospectively change the rights of its citizens", and that anything other than a guarantee was "a failure of this government to protect its people".

Brokenshire said this "would be unwise without a parallel assurance from European governments regarding British nationals living in their countries".

In the Commons, SNP home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry criticised Home Secretary Theresa May for not responding to the urgent question herself.

May, a Conservative leadership hopeful, has said she wants to "guarantee the position" of EU nationals but that their status would form part of the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who is backing May, said it would be "absurd" to guarantee a right to stay in the UK before a reciprocal deal was done for UK expats in the EU.

Another leadership candidate, Andrea Leadsom, said such a guarantee should be offered, saying citizens of other EU countries living in the UK cannot be "bargaining chips" in Brexit negotiations.