PM talks Brexit in Florence.

May pledges transition period after Brexit will protect EU citizens’ rights

EU citizens could remain free to move to Britain until 2021 under Theresa May’s plans for a two-year Brexit implementation period – in which Brussels regulations will still apply.

At the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence, Italy, Mrs May addressed a largely British audience, including Mr Johnson, Chancellor Philip Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis, many of whom had flown to Italy that morning to hear her speak.

The address was designed to break the deadlock in Brexit negotiations and was described as “constructive” by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

Free movement of people under EU law will formally end on Brexit day, expected in March 2019.

However, the only major immigration control that will be applied to the bloc’s nationals during the transition is a requirement to register with the authorities.

The move is designed to ensure “access to one another’s markets should continue on current terms” for the timelimited period, despite the UK leaving the single market and customs union – raising questions over whether Brexit was being delayed in all but name.

In a landmark speech, Mrs May also pledged that other EU nations would not be left out of pocket by the UK’s decision to leave because it will pay budgetary contributions agreed in 2014 which run to 2020, paving the way for an estimated payment of around £18 billion (around 20 billion euro).

Mrs May declined to put a figure on the amount the UK will pay in its so-called divorce bill and stressed the final total could not be agreed until the negotiations are settled.

However, she insisted estimates of Britain’s liabilities ranging from £50 to £80 billion were “exaggerated and unhelpful”.

Mr Barnier immediately raised questions, stressing Brussels will assess whether the financial offer “covers all commitments” made by the UK as a member state.

Mrs May rejected pre-existing models for a future UK-EU relationship, describing a Norway-style membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) or Canada’s free trade deal (Ceta) on goods as “unimaginative”.

She assured EU nationals living in the UK that she wanted them to be able to “carry on living your lives as before” and said protections for them would be written into UK law.

In a significant concession, she said UK courts would be able to “take into account” rulings of the European Court of Justice on EU law following Brexit.

And she said a new judicial mechanism would have to be developed to resolve disputes over the implementation of the withdrawal agreement.

Mrs May said there would be no need for new tariffs on trade between the UK and EU and promised that any future UK divergence from EU rules would not be designed to gain an “unfair competitive advantage”.

Mrs May’s 35-minute address was hailed as “positive, optimistic and dynamic” by Boris Johnson, who was in the audience just six days after publishing a 4,000-word personal

We are going to have a transition period and after that, we are going to be taking back control. BORIS JOHNSON

Brexit manifesto which exposed Cabinet rifts over the future relationship.

“As the Prime Minister rightly said, we are going to have a transition period and after that, of course, we are going to be taking back control of our borders, of our laws, of our destiny,” he added.

Manfred Weber, a German MEP and close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said: “In substance, PM May is bringing no more clarity to London’s positions. I am even more concerned now.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mrs May’s speech “appeared to be the product of negotiations within the Tory Party rather than negotiations with the EU”.

And former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said it would mean the UK leaving the EU “in name only”.