THERESA May has sparked a new row with Brussels after she warned the UK would seek to limit the rights of EU citizens who come to Britain during the post-Brexit transition.
Speaking during her official visit to China, the Prime Minister said those arriving after the Brexit date of March 2019 could not expect to enjoy the same rights as those who came before.
Her intervention provoked an angry response from senior EU figures who insisted EU law, including the free movement of people, must apply throughout the proposed 21-month transitional period.
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit co-ordinator, said the UK had to remain subject to the entire acquis, the body of EU law, if the transition was to work.
"We will not accept that there are two sets of rights for EU citizens. For the transition to work, it must mean a continuation of the existing acquis with no exceptions," he declared.
His comments were echoed by the parliament's vice-president, the senior Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness, who said: “What Theresa May is doing is trying to keep the Conservative Party Brexiteers online."
Ministers, however, said the EU's demands, which emerged in negotiating guidelines published earlier this week, contradicted the terms of UK's agreement in December with the remaining 27 member states.
Mrs May made clear she was determined to fight the EU proposal when negotiations on the transitional arrangements began.
She explained those EU nationals who had come to Britain when it was in the EU had “made a life choice and set up certain expectations and it was right that we have made an agreement that ensured they could continue their life in the way they had wanted to”.
But she insisted: “For those who come after March 2019, that will be different; because they will be coming to a UK that they know will be outside the EU.
"This is a matter for negotiation for the immediate period but I'm clear there's a difference between those people who came prior to us leaving and those who will come when they know the UK is no longer a member of the EU," added the PM.
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