Will the cut-off date for new EU migrants be next month?

EUROPEAN migrants arriving in Britain after next month are set to lose the right to remain permanently in this country, under plans being drawn up by Theresa May.

Whitehall sources said the Prime Minister was planning to make the ‘cut-off’ date for new EU migrants the point when she triggers formal Brexit proceedings.

The move is the first step in ending free movement, as EU migrants arriving after this date will not have the automatic right to live and work in this country once Britain has left the European club.

Home Office lawyers have dismissed calls to use the referendum date in June last year as the cut-off, warning it would lead to court action by migrants whose rights under EU law had been taken away.

But ministers are also wary of waiting until Britain actually leaves the EU, probably in 2019, to set the cut-off – warning this could create a ‘surge effect’, with migrants seek- ing to enter the UK before the deadline. Downing Street last night insisted a final decision had not been taken, but one Whitehall source said: ‘Setting a retrospective date is fraught with legal problems and if you set a date two years into the future, you are giving people who might be considering coming here an awful lot of notice. It makes a lot of sense to do it at or around the point when we trigger Article 50 next month.’

Ministers are under intense pressure to guarantee the rights of the estimated 3.3 million EU migrants who have settled in the UK in recent years.

But the EU has refused to discuss a reciprocal deal protecting the rights of 1.2 million British citizens living in the EU until formal Brexit talks have started. Mrs May has said dealing with the issue will be an ‘early priority’ in the Brexit negotiations. But, without a cut-off date, any agreement would apply to new migrants arriving here.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd yesterday played down speculation about the exact nature of the immigration regime that will be put in place after the UK has left the EU.

Reports yesterday suggested new arrivals from the EU could be granted five-year work visas but banned from claiming benefits, including tax credits, while they are here. Such a move would limit the attractiveness of Britain to unskilled migrants.

Miss Rudd told ITV: ‘We will be ending freedom of movement as we know it.

‘Otherwise we’re looking at all sorts of different alternatives.’