Freedom of movement to continue after Brexit

EU citizens will have the right to work in Britain during transitional period as long as they register

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”.

Ms 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 Prof 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.

Ms 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 Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, 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.”

Mr 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. That date has not yet been set because it is part of the negotiations with the EU. Significantly, Ms Rudd’s letter contains no mention of a net migration target.

Mr Hammond told business leaders he wants a “two-phase” Brexit deal, suggesting the simple, “off-the-shelf ” transition deal would maintain current trading relations with Europe for at least two years after Brexit.

EUROPE has warned that the next phase of Brexit negotiations will be delayed for two months because of the UK’S refusal to engage with Brussels on the so-called Brexit “divorce bill”, increasing fears of a no-deal scenario.

Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, issued the warning in a private meeting with EU ambassadors, according to an account of the meeting obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

The Department for Exiting the European Union responded that the UK remained “confident” that it will have demonstrated “sufficient progress” to move the talks on to trade in October.

However, Mujtaba Rahman, who heads European analysis at the Eurasia Group risk consultancy and consults widely in Brussels and EU capitals, said that the EU27 was now working on the assumption that trade talks will only begin in December. “As this will compress the negotiating time available to agree to the parameters of the future framework and transitional arrangements, Berlin, Paris and others are also contingency planning for a ‘no-deal’ scenario,” he said.

The EU is refusing to talk about trade or the UK’S future relationship with the EU until “sufficient progress” has been made over the key issues of protecting citizens’ rights, the Northern Ireland border and the financial settlement.

According to Mr Barnier’s initial timetable, the plan was for the EU to make a judgment on “sufficient progress” at the October European council, but he told EU ambassadors that this was now “very unlikely” and the deadline would slip to December.

The next round of talks is scheduled for August 28, but The Daily Telegraph understands that both sides are close to agreeing to speed up the negotiations, by holding talks every two weeks from September. It is also understood that Mr Barnier threatened to cancel last week’s talks if the UK did not formally acknowledge it had financial obligations to the EU – an acknowledgement that did eventually come.

British negotiators are refusing to set out in detail where the UK’S financial obligations lie – arguing that the EU must first clarify the legal basis for its own €100 billion (£89 billion) Brexit bill, which the UK believes to be legally indefensible and “extortionate”.

Mr Barnier said last week that the EU had provided “detailed legal analysis of these commitments”, but UK officials insist that the EU has not provided sufficient detail or clarity.

Separately, The Telegraph has seen a confidential memo sent to City bosses by a commercial consultancy, citing Downing Street sources, saying that Theresa May was prepared to spend up to £50billion on the “divorce bill”.

However, this figure – some £20billion more than previous estimates – was contested as “too high” by a very senior negotiator source.

♦ The Irish government wants the Irish Sea to become the post-brexit border with the UK and has warned Theresa May that her current proposal is unworkable, according to reports. The British Government had proposed using technology to allow free trade between the north and south of the island but Dublin’s preferred option is for customs and immigration checks to be located away from the land border and at ports and airports, it is claimed.