The UK could negotiate an ‘emergency brake’ on freedom of movement of European Union nationals to Britain, according to reports.
It’s been suggested that this is one of the “ideas on the table” in the UK’s negotiations for Brexit, The Guardian reported.
It said that ‘high ranking UK officials’ had suggested this could be one of the talking points as the Government attempts to retain UK access to the single market.
However, it is likely Britain would still have to pay into the EU budget, while losing certain negotiating rights.
Migration of EU nationals was one of the key points in the EU Referendum in June. Because the Government was unable to stop this as a member of the EU, it has imposed increasingly tougher rules on accessing a UK visa for people from outside of the EU who want to live and work in the UK.
EU officials and advisors are understood to be keen to retain the UK as part of the single market to limit the economic effects of a complete separation from Britain. There are also concerns that other EU nations may want to follow the UK’s example and leave the union.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, one of the leading campaigners for a Leave vote in the Referendum, has suggested that it will be possible for Britain to retain the valuable trading rights while putting a limit on the number of EU migrants allowed to travel visa-free into the UK.
During a trip to New York, he said: “I’ve absolutely no doubt that that balance can be struck, and over the next few weeks we’ll be discussing that in the government and with our European friends and partners.
“Everybody wishes to make fast progress in the economic interests both of Britain and of the European Union. I think there is very much a deal there to be done, and the faster we can get it done the better.”