The UK will restrict access for low-skilled foreign workers and will require all skilled employees, who wish to settle in the country, to have a job offer and meet salary and language skills requirements. These will be part of the post-Brexit rules that will come into force next year.

The UK officially left the European Union at the end of January, but there is currently a transitional period until December 31, with almost nothing to change.

EU nationals are currently free to move and this has led the British to vote for Brexit in a referendum in 2016 in an attempt to reduce the number of people arriving in the country.

“Our new immigration system will stop the faucet for low-cost low-cost foreign workers”, said the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Priti Sushil Patel. “From next year, all skilled staff will have to earn enough points to work in the UK. They will have to speak English, have a firm job offer and meet the salary requirements”, added she.

Priti Sushil Patel said the “total” number of foreigners coming to work in the UK would be reduced.

Some opposition politicians have argued that restrictions on immigrants can hurt public services such as the National Health Service, which relies in some areas on EU citizens working as nurses and doctors.

The government has announced that it will give additional points to people working in sectors with a shortage of skilled labor.

This year, representatives of London and Brussels will negotiate an agreement after Brexit, which is due to come into force on January 1, with the battle lines already outlined as to how far Britain will deviate from EU rules and regulations.