Home Office faces court over stripping 1,500 EU citizens' UK rights

The3million filed papers at the high court on Friday, accusing the Home Office of tearing up rights it had already handed out. The campaign group says almost 1,500 EU citizens who were granted pre-settled status after Brexit were later told those decisions had been an «error». Under the policy, some or all of their rights to live in the UK were removed.

The claim argues the Home Office skipped the safeguards baked into the Brexit withdrawal agreement. Those include a right of appeal and a proportionality assessment — a check on whether stripping someone's rights makes sense when they built their whole life in Britain on the strength of the Home Office's original decision. the3million wants the court to declare the policy unlawful and strike the offending parts from the published rules.

The fallout is personal. One case involves a 33-year-old Brazilian Italian engineer who has lived in London since 2018 and was told he could stay but his Brazilian wife could not — a decision reversed in recent weeks after objections were raised. An NHS worker studying for a PhD in dentistry told the3million the notification had turned her life upside down.

At the centre of the mess is jure sanguinis — Italian citizenship by unbroken descent. In October 2026 the Home Office accepted that evidence of Italian citizenship plus evidence it came through jure sanguinis means the person was Italian from birth. Previously it told a number of Brazilian Italians their status was granted in error because they never showed an Italian passport at application. Many say they could not get one: Italian public institutions were locked down during the coronavirus pandemic.

Monique Hawkins, acting CEO of the3million, did not hold back. «The Home Office is putting the cart before the horse,» she said, arguing it denies people the withdrawal agreement's safeguards by claiming they are clearly not covered. She compared it to saying someone needs no trial because they are clearly guilty, and pointed to the jure sanguinis U-turn as proof the department moves when its errors are exposed. «Despite our advocacy efforts since early 2025, the Home Office refused to change course, so we have no option but to challenge the policy in court.»

This is not the Home Office's first day in court over the withdrawal agreement. In 2022 the Independent Monitoring Authority, backed by the3million, sued over demands that EU citizens reapply for settled status when their pre-settled status expired. High court judges sided with the watchdog, ruling the conditions unlawful. A Home Office spokesperson said the department could not comment while proceedings are ongoing.