EU: Migrants should be let into Britain until 2021

BRITAIN is facing demands to push back the date that new EU migrants can arrive to 2021 in return for a two-year transition deal, it emerged last night.

EU negotiators plan to demand this later ‘cut-off date’ during the next phase of negotiations, in return for the transition deal wanted by the Prime Minister.

The ultimatum risks infuriating Brexiteers who insist leaving should mean regaining control of the UK’s immigration system.

The divorce deal agreed by Theresa May last week proposes a cut-off date of March 2019, after which new EU migrants would lose the automatic right to reside in the UK on a long-term basis.

British officials insist the issue has been largely settled in negotiations but the EU believes that the date can be pushed back further.

A European Commission report said: ‘The “specified date” should, in the Commission’s view, be defined not as the date of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal, but as that of the end of the transitional period.’

The ‘state of progress’ report was sent to the European Council setting out negotiating issues before EU leaders meet to discuss trade talks on Thursday.

The strategy will raise concerns that Brussels is planning to use the next phase of discussions, which will likely be given the green light by leaders during the meeting, to ask for more demands on so-called divorce issues.