Liam Fox has said there is no cabinet-wide agreement for the suggestion by the chancellor, Philip Hammond, that free movement could continue for up to three years after Brexit.

Exposing a divide across Theresa May’s top table, the international trade secretary warned that “control of our own borders” was one of the key elements behind the leave vote and said free movement must end in 2019.



His remarks emerged after Hammond said “many things will look similar” on the day after Brexit in March 2019, with a three-year transitional period.

The chancellor claimed there was “broad consensus” in the cabinet about the idea of transition but that it should not extend beyond the next general election.

That followed reports of the cabinet agreeing to the idea that free movement could continue alongside access to the single market during transition, and Britain would be constrained in signing new trade deals.



But speaking on Monday, after the initial stories emerged, Fox said: “If there have been discussions on that, I have not been party to them. I have not been involved in any discussion on that, nor have I signified my agreement to anything like that.

“We made it clear that control of our own borders was one of the elements we wanted in the referendum, and unregulated free movement would seem to me not to keep faith with that decision.”

Speaking to the Sunday Times during his second visit to the US in a month to discuss future trade possibilities, Fox added that he was happy to talk about transitional arrangements with colleagues in May’s government. He had previously suggested they could last until 2022.

“But that has to be an agreement by the cabinet. It can’t just be made by an individual or any group within the cabinet,” added the minister, who has been a vocal proponent for leaving the EU.

A senior government source said the prime minister’s Lancaster House speech had made it clear that free movement would end in March 2019 and be followed by a “time-limited implementation phase”, which would be outlined in a white paper and then a parliamentary bill.

However, they claimed that the free movement system would end “by definition” because Britain would be outside the EU, leaving open the possibility that immigration limits could come in at a later date. The EU has long argued that unfettered access to the single market, which could continue for a short period to reduce the cliff edge for business, is reliant on the four freedoms, including movement of people.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, is commissioning the independent Migration Advisory Committee to carry out a detailed analysis of the economic and social contributions, and costs, of EU citizens in Britain.

Announcing the study, Rudd said the government would seek a transitional arrangement, likely to involve the continuation of free movement, to ensure there would be no cliff edge for employers or EU nationals.

However, the study will not report back until September 2018, seven months before Britain is set to formally exit the EU.

The Labour MP Heidi Alexander, a leading supporter of Open Britain, which campaigns for a soft Brexit, said the timing of Rudd’s report was concerning. “It beggars belief that the government have taken a year to get round to asking for expert evidence on the role played by EU nationals in our country,” she said.

“Our immigration policy has been governed by anecdote and scaremongering, rather than evidence, since the moment Theresa May set foot in the Home Office in 2010. The timing of this announcement shows the total lack of preparation and understanding that has typified this government’s attitude to Brexit so far.”

Labour has also faced splits at the top level regarding Brexit, with the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, at loggerheads with the shadow international trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, over whether the UK ought to try to remain in the customs union.

Overall, Labour has made it clear that while free movement will end, immigration controls must take a second place to economic factors. Given that May leads a minority government, the opposition could make life difficult for ministers across a series of complicated Brexit bills.