AN MSP has revealed that she fears her French-born husband will not be allowed to stay in the UK following Brexit.
Mairi Gougeon, MP for Angus North and Mearns, has hit out at the lack of guarantees emerging from Westminster over the rights of EU nationals to settle in the UK.
Saying she and husband Baptise have been left in a "cloud of uncertainty", Mrs Gougeon revealed that the lack of information has lead them to question whether they can have children.
She said: "The fact that we are married guarantees nothing. We could very well be in a scenario in a few years’ time where he can’t get permanent residency and has to leave for France.
"Where does that leave us as a family? How can we even begin to plan to start our own family now? There are also implications for our wider family, who may wish to come here at some stage and live closer to us. Will they be able to do that?
"There are countless stories of the Home Office splitting up families, and my family is just one of potentially hundreds of thousands across Scotland who are worried about what our future is."
Writing in The National, the MP added: "The scariest thing is that we would all have to apply for settled status, but that only works if the UK strikes a deal with the EU. What happens if there is no deal? Where does that leave us?"
Mr Gougeon works in the North Sea oil and gas industry, and is a fluent English speaker who pays his taxes in the UK.
He is one of the estimated 393,000 non-UK born citizens living in Scotland, and one of the three million residing in the UK.
Mrs Gougeon said that any reassurances from Thersa May and her cabinet have been "meaningless" without firm commitments to let EU nationals remain freely.
She added: "There are many foreign-born people living in our country right now who are in a worse position than Baptiste, and the impact of an impending EU exit is already felt.
"People are losing their homes and their jobs. The more I read, hear and see, the more worrying the situation becomes."
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