The UK is set to leave the trade bloc on January 31 and according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), there were a total of 1,441 company applicants to enter Britain between 2018 and 2019. Under the temporary permission regime, European companies will be allowed to operate in Britain after Brexit but they will eventually need to seek full authorisation to remain past a certain point. The release of the data comes as the European Parliament’s Guy Verhofstadt insisted there would be a grace period for EU citizens who have not applied for the “settled status” scheme. 

Mr Verhofstadt told the BBC: “What will happen for those people even after the grace period?

“Well there will be no automatic deportation.

“After the grace period, they will have a possibility to apply, giving the grounds why it was not possible to do it within the normal procedures.”

Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement will return to the House of Commons this week for the report stage of the debate. 

The agreement passed through the House of Lords last week after receiving no amendments. 

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7.38am update: European firms apply for UK entry

According to the FCA, over 1,441 firms applied to use the temporary permission regime. 

Moreover, 1,000 of those companies appear to be setting up an office for the first time, according to Bovill, a regulatory consultant which received the information from the FCA. 

Michael Johnson, from Bovill said: “The high proportion of firms without an existing UK branch that have applied for the temporary permission suggests there will be some movement of staff from these EU 27 firms into the UK.” 

The highest number of additions came from Irish financial firms with 228. 

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