LORD Frost has claimed the Home Office were being “proactive” by sending warning letters to long-term UK citizens telling them they risk losing the right to work in the UK.

Campaigners yesterday criticised the “scattergun” mailshot which was sent to thousands of people telling them to apply for EU settled status before the end of June or lose out on benefits, free healthcare and the right to work in the UK.

However, many of these letters were sent to people who had lived in the UK for more than 40 years or who have dual citizenship, the Guardian reported.The letter from the Home Office states: “The United Kingdom has left the European Union, so to carry on living in the UK after June 30, 2021, you and your family members need to have a UK immigration status.”

The topic was brought up yesterday during the House of Lords European Affairs Committee where Frost, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, was grilled on the issue by Labour peer Lord Faulkner during a remote session. Faulkner focused his question on citizens’ rights, and said: “I’d like you to comment firstly, if you would, on the rather alarming press reports this morning that the Home Office have sent out thousands and thousands of letters to people telling them they’re going to lose their status unless they clarify the situation by the end of June, when various potential numbers of these people do have the right to remain in Britain and in many cases have dual nationality.

“Are you not worried that the Home Office database is obviously hopelessly inaccurate and this is causing quite needless pain and alarm for people present in Britain who we really value?”

Frost claimed he had not seen the press reports and was therefore at a “disadvantage”. He said: “I imagine, the dilemma we face is that we want EU citizens who wish to remain here and have the right to remain here to register with the settlement scheme by the end of June. And there is a dilemma which our systems face, and overseas as well, between being proactive and warning people that certain deadlines are approaching and certain things may need to be done even if some of them have already done that, and saying nothing and leaving it to their own initiative and finding that some don’t do it.

“So as I say I haven’t seen these press reports but it seems sensible to alert EU citizens as far as possible that the June 30 deadline is approaching and if you have the right to remain in the UK its good to register and exercise that right.”

Faulkner pointed out that the letters were sent to people who are “now classed as British nationals” and asked if Home Office “incompetence” was making his job as Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe more difficult.

Frost replied: “I can’t comment on the detail, but we have tried to be clear as we can that EU citizens here are our friends and neighbours who we want them to stay, and obviously the huge numbers of registrations with the scheme already show that the scheme is working well, we think, and compares favourably with many other arrangements.”

Frost confirmed that there are currently no plans to extend the deadline for applications past June 30.

Some recipients said they were disturbed that they remain classified as foreigners on internal Home Office databases.