The Government has announced freedom of movement for EU citizens will end “once and for all” under its new post-Brexit immigration system unveiled today.
The new system will be put in place from January 2021, after the UK’s transition out of the EU is complete.
EU migrants will have to apply for work visas in the same way as those from the rest of the world.
Higher-skilled migrants from around the world will be given priority, with lower-skilled immigration curbed.
Prime Minister Theresa May said: “For the first time in decades, it will be this country that controls and chooses who we want to come here.
“It will be a skills-based system where it is workers’ skills that matter, not where they come from. It will be a system that looks across the globe and attracts the people with the skills we need.
“Crucially it will be fair to ordinary working people. For too long people have felt they have been ignored on immigration and that politicians have not taken their concerns seriously enough.”
Farm labour
For the farming industry, a recently-announced pilot scheme will allow businesses to hire non-EU migrant workers for a period of six months.
The two year pilot scheme will mean the UK's fruit and vegetable farms are able to employ migrant workers to plug the labour drain.
2,500 workers from outside the EU will be able to come to the UK each year, the Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Defra Secretary Michael Gove announced last month.
Soft fruit production in the UK has grown dramatically, by 130% in the last 20 years.
But the sector has seen a sharp decline in the number of seasonal workers, the vast majority from the EU, available to pick crops since the UK voted to leave the bloc.
