Australia has called for a free-trade deal with Britain as soon as possible, in a boost for the newly appointed prime minister, Theresa May.

In a phone call on Saturday, May spoke to her Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, who expressed his desire to open up trading between the two countries as a matter of urgency.

There was, however, unsettling news for EU migrants who have recently arrived in the UK as the country’s new Brexit minister cast new doubt over their right to remain.



May described the call with Turnbull as very encouraging and insisted it showed leaving the European Union could work for Britain. She has asked the new international trade secretary, Liam Fox, to begin exploring options but acknowledged that Britain could not sign any deals while it was still an EU member.

May said: “I have been very clear that this government will make a success of our exit from the European Union. One of the ways we will do this is by embracing the opportunities to strike free trade deals with our partners across the globe. It is very encouraging that one of our closest international partners is already seeking to establish just such a deal.

“This shows that we can make Brexit work for Britain, and the new secretary of state for international trade will be taking this forward in the weeks and months ahead. Britain is an outward-looking and globally minded country, and we will build on this as we forge a new role for ourselves in the world.”

Turnbull said: “We did discuss a free-trade agreement ... Clearly our free-trade arrangements with the United Kingdom are with the European community.

“I have had a constructive discussion with the prime minister about that and we look forward to discussions between my trade minister and his counterpart, Liam Fox.

“We need to get moving on that quickly ... Australia has been a great beneficiary of free trade and open markets and so has the United Kingdom.”

On Friday, May said told the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, that she would not trigger article 50 to leave the EU before getting UK-wide agreement – a potentially difficult objective given that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the bloc.

But Fox claimed numerous non-EU countries had already asked Britain for a trade deal and said he was “scoping about a dozen free trade deals outside the EU to be ready for when we leave”, amid reports that he was preparing to fly to the US next week

He told the Sunday Times: “We’ve already had a number of countries saying, ‘We’d love to do a trade deal with the world’s fifth biggest economy without having to deal with the other 27 members of the EU’.”

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull wants talks to commence soon. Photograph: Rick Rycroft/AP

David Davis, the minister for Brexit, has said EU citizens may be blocked from staying in Britain permanently even if they arrive before the country leaves the union. He said the government may have to take a tough line with EU immigrants who come to the UK before Brexit happens, and therefore get the automatic right to stay permanently under free movement rules.

May has said immigration could rise in the short term if EU citizens felt they needed to get to Britain before it left and could impose controls on European immigration. Asked about a potential spike in immigration numbers, Davis told the Mail on Sunday: “We may have to deal with that. There are a variety of possibilities. We may have to say that the right to indefinite leave to remain protection only applies before a certain date. But you have to make those judgments on reality, not speculation.”

He stopped short of guaranteeing the status of EU nationals already in the country, a position for which May has received fierce criticism from across the political spectrum. He said: “We will get a generous settlement for EU migrants here now and a generous settlement for British citizens in the EU.”

He reasserted his belief that the EU would grant Britain access to the single market as well as a suspension of free movement rules, something which European leaders have so far ruled out. “Everybody is taking starting positions,” he said. “Of course they are talking tough. If I was negotiating to buy your house or your car my first offer wouldn’t be my final one, would it?”

He is part of a triumvirate of Brexit-backing new cabinet ministers, alongside Fox and Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary.

Davis admitted that “even within government there’ll be tensions” over Brexit, but said: “If you’d said six months ago I would be sitting here doing this with Theresa as prime minister, I would have said you must be on something. It still feels dream-like.”

Johnson, who will travel to Brussels for an EU foreign ministers summit beginning on Monday, insisted the country could now become “Global Britain”.

He wrote in the Sunday Express that leaving the EU “gives us a chance not just to do new trade deals, but to think of ourselves once again as a truly Global Britain using our unique voice – humane, compassionate, principled – to do good around the world, and to exploit growth markets to the full.”

Press Association contributed to this report