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EU migrants keep benefits after Brexit

Another Tory manifesto pledge at risk
Theresa May will trigger article 50 on Wednesday, starting two years of EU exit talks
Theresa May will trigger article 50 on Wednesday, starting two years of EU exit talks
AFP/GETTY

Ministers face an explosive row over migrant benefits amid claims that they are poised to violate another manifesto pledge as Theresa May fires the starting gun on Brexit this week.

EU migrants who have come to Britain will continue to be paid child benefit after Brexit to send to their families back home, under plans sent to ministers last week. A paper submitted by the Department for Exiting the European Union (Dexeu) to the cabinet’s Brexit committee recommended that the 3m EU migrants in the UK when the prime minister takes the historic step of triggering article 50 should keep their rights to state handouts even after Britain leaves the EU.

Those who arrive after Wednesday will not get the benefits. But cabinet ministers have