THE Government’s EU Settlement Scheme has some support among local politicians, with Oxford Conservatives saying the fee is ‘not unreasonable’.

Mark Bhagwandin, the group's deputy chairman, said he would be ‘surprised’ if EU nationals were outraged at having to pay £65 to stay.

He explained: “I see no real issue with the fee. I am an immigrant myself and when I applied to remain it ran into thousands of pounds.

“At the moment non-EU nationals applying for settlement pay over £1,400 for the first applicant and thousands more for each dependant.

“The Home Office expects there to be over three million applications for settlement from EU nationals and there will be a tremendous cost to the taxpayer in processing those applications. We have to find that money from somewhere and I don’t think asking EU nationals to pay less than £100 is an unreasonable request.

“If it was running into hundreds or thousands of pounds then I would have an issue with it. Asking people for an amount that is not exorbitant is reasonable.”

He continued: “I don’t think it is penalising them. (They are being given) documents to legalise their status here.

“People from the Commonwealth are paying thousands of pounds. It’s quite a small fee relative to that. I would be surprised if EU nationals were outraged about that.”