Theresa May overruled the Home Office to insist that EU citizens who arrived during a Brexit transition period would not have the automatic right to remain in the country.

The prime minister made the decision despite warnings from senior officials that they would struggle to create separate systems to register existing EU citizens and new arrivals by March next year.

Mrs May announced this month that European citizens who arrived after the country had officially left the EU could not expect the same treatment as the three million citizens already in Britain. The move has caused alarm in the Home Office, with government sources admitting that work on a separate registration scheme had “barely begun” and “almost certainly” would not be ready in time.

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