Britain will end the free movement of EU workers after Brexit, British Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis has said, despite reports that Westminster has signalled a “soft-Brexit” as Brussels and London continue divorce talks, according to Radio Poland.

“Free movement of labour ends when we leave the European Union in the spring of 2019,” Lewis told public broadcaster BBC on Thursday.

“We’re very clear that free movement ends. It’s part of the four key principles of the European Union. When we leave, it therefore – by definition – ends,” Lewis added.

But on Wednesday, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd was cited by the Financial Times daily as saying that she would not close the door to European workers after Brexit.

“We must keep attracting the brightest and best migrants from around the world” the Financial Times quoted Rudd as saying.
Lewis told the BBC that “a new system of immigration” would be in place before Brexit as the UK has a “long term aim” of reducing migration from nearly 250,000 to “sustainable levels” of “tens of thousands” but did not place a time frame on the target.

Some three million EU nationals, among them about 800,000 Poles, live in the UK.

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