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A French barrister is waiting for a hearing which he hopes could save EU citizenship and its associated rights for Britons who have well-established lives in other states on Brexit day.

Julien Fouchet is representing campaigner Harry Shindler, 98, from Italy and five Britons in France. He is challenging an EU regulation from April exempting Britons from Schengen visas in the case of a no-deal Brexit, on the grounds that it treats Britons as non-EU citizens after Brexit.

He refers to the Tjebbes case in March in which the European Court of Justice stated that EU citizenship should not be removed without taking into consideration disproportionate impact on a person’s private, family and professional life.

Mr Fouchet has asked the Gene­ral Court of the EU in Luxembourg to rule on Britons who are well-established in other states. Some also had no say in the Brexit referendum as they lost their right to vote because of the UK’s 15-year rule.

The commission told the court that after Brexit “there will be no more British EU citizens�.