Theresa May has promised that freedom of movement for EU citizens coming to Britain will end on Brexit day in March 2019.

Brussels had insisted free movement must continue to the last day of any transition period, meaning EU citizens would be free to settle in Britain until at least the end of 2020.

But the Prime Minister has made it clear that changing the rules on migration as soon as Britain leaves the EU is a must for her in negotiations over the transition period, which begin next week.

Speaking in China on the first day of a three-day trade visit, she said people “did not vote for nothing to change when we come out of the EU”.

She said that the issue of citizens’ rights had already been agreed in December when the EU agreed to move on to trade talks after “sufficient progress” had been reached in phase one of the Brexit talks.