Freedom of movement to continue after Brexit

BRITAIN: European Union citizens will still be allowed to come to the UK to live and work after Brexit as long as they register with the Home Office, Amber Rudd has announced.

The Home Secretary said that freedom of movement would officially end in March 2019 when Britain leaves the EU, but revealed plans that suggest the existing immigration regime will remain largely unchanged during the transitional period after Brexit.

Government sources conceded that the rules governing EU migrants coming to Britain during the transitional period ‘‘may look like a similar arrangement’’ to free movement.

It raised concerns among Eurosceptic MPS that the Government was not serious about reducing net migration, with one MP warning that a registration scheme must not be used as a way of ‘‘keeping the existing system in place by another name’’.

Rudd set out details of her postbrexit immigration plans in a letter to the Migration Advisory Committee, the independent body she has asked to report on the number and location of EU citizens in each sector of the economy. She told Professor Alan Manning, the committee’s chairman, that during the transition period there would be ‘‘a straightforward system for the registration and documentation of new arrivals’’. She added: ‘‘A registration system that enables EU citizens to demonstrate their right to live and work in the UK is the basic requirement to be able to operate any system of immigration control.’’ The length of the implementation phase is part of the ongoing Brexit negotiations, but Cabinet ministers have suggested it will last anything from two to four years.

Rudd said she wanted to ‘‘ensure there was no cliff edge on the UK’S departure for employers or individuals’’. It was seen by some MPS as further evidence that the Government is moving towards the jobs-first Brexit favoured by the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, rather than focusing on reducing net migration.

The Conservative MP Philip Hollobone said: ‘‘What people voted for was to get back control over immigration numbers and that control also means reducing them. Just registering people doesn’t really do either of those.’’

Hollobone said it must not be used to extend free movement indefinitely. He said: ‘‘So long as it is a shift away from one to the other and not just some means of keeping the existing system in place by another name.’’ Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, said there was ‘‘something going on here that I don’t like the look of’’. Until now, the Government has only said EU citizens who have lived here for five years will be allowed to stay, and the rest will have a ‘‘grace period’’ to complete five years’ residence if they arrived before a certain date.

- Telegraph Group