Disabled peer in plea to protect EU care workers

Warning: Baroness Thomas says the NHS and the care system would collapse if EU workers went back home
Kate Proctor1 March 2017
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A disabled peer has made an impassioned plea to Theresa May to protect EU workers’ rights ahead of a showdown in the House of Lords over Brexit.

With more than 5,000 EU care staff living in London and thousands more employed by the NHS, Baroness Thomas said the Government must write safeguards for them into its Article 50 Bill.

Baroness Thomas, 71, a Lib-Dem peer who suffers from muscular dystrophy and relies on a carer herself, said: “I have found tremendous kindness from the nurses from the EU that have treated me and I would find it so sad if they thought we didn’t want them here. In the past 18 months I have been treated by Spanish, Portuguese and Polish nurses.

“Lots of male disabled people I know are looked after by men from eastern Europe. For younger wheelchair users the availability of carers is going to go down to a mere trickle.”

The Government is facing defeat in the Lords tonight as peers from across the political spectrum are set to back a Labour amendment to the Bill to give EU workers a cast-iron guarantee their rights would be protected once Britain leaves the EU.

But the Government does not want to give assurances until there are guarantees for Britons living in EU member states.

A letter has been sent to peers by Home Secretary Amber Rudd re- assuring them EU workers would be treated with the “utmost respect”, but Baroness Thomas said this was “not much of a deterrent” to stop them sending the Bill back to the Commons.

She added that if EU nationals went home “the NHS and the care system would collapse”.

The Government thinks the Lords will not dig their heels in and kick the Bill back to the Commons more than once. @KateProctorES

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