We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Make the most of your money by signing up to our newsletter fornow

The First Secretary of State dismissed Mr Verhofstadt’s concerns EU nationals would be treated like second rate citizens.

Asked on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 why EU citizens could not be given the same rights they had previously had in the UK, Mr Green denied they would be worse off.

He said: “I would say to him, read our proposal. Our proposal is precisely that somebody who is here now will keep the rights that they already have and we hope and expect that British citizens living in other EU countries will keep the rights that they already have now.”

And asked if there was an “ideological” push to walk away from anything to do with the European Court of Justice, Mr Green said the UK would seek to attain what the British public voted for.