Voters will have to wait before migration can begin to be cut despite Britain deciding to leave the European Union, Theresa May has warned.

The Home Secretary, who is the front-runner in the Conservative leadership election, promises to reform the EU’s rules on “free movement” of people, which currently allow an unlimited number of migrants to move to the UK to live and work.

However, she stops short of promising to abolish free movement altogether, warning that it will “take time” before the numbers of immigrants come down.

The issue of cutting migration is one of the critical battlegrounds in the negotiation between the UK and the EU’s remaining 27 member states during talks to negotiate Brexit in the months and years ahead.