Theresa May has suggested EU citizens could be given preferential rights to come to the UK after Brexit.

The prime minister insisted freedom of movement will end when Britain leaves the EU but said the issue of whether to give citizens of European countries special treatment has yet to be decided.

She also hardened her stance on dissent in her party, warning cabinet ministers they face being sacked if they speak out against the government’s Brexit policy.

It comes after the cabinet agreed a plan for Britain’s future relationship with the EU following a day of talks at the prime minister’s Chequers country retreat.

Under the proposals, freedom of movement between the UK and the EU will end but a “mobility framework” will be set up to make it easier for people to travel between the two, including for study and work.

A shortage of fruit pickers means British farmers are having to accept anyone with “two hands and two legs”, a recruitment agency has said.

More than half of recruiters could not find fruit and vegetable pickers even in the “quiet” first months of this year, according to the Association of Labour Providers.

Unpicked fruit has been left to rot in the fields as a result.

Ninety-nine per cent of seasonal workers on British farms come from Eastern Europe, with many arriving from Romania and Bulgaria.

British firms are worried about the loss of EU migrant labour after Brexit because their UK counterparts are lazier and take more time off work, an official government report has found.

The Migration Advisory Committee found that workers from Europe are “a high quality, eager workforce” compared to UK-born workers, leading employers to rely on them instead.

EU workers, especially those in low-skilled jobs, are also paid less.

Businesses fear they will not be able to employ staff from the EU after Brexit, forcing them to spend more on less productive British staff which could drive up prices or force production abroad where it is cheaper.

The number of Romanians and Bulgarians living in Britain has risen by nearly 80% from 230,000 in 2014 to 413,000 last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The surge in numbers coming to live in Britain from the two countries that joined the European Union in 2007 reflects the removal of restrictions on their rights to work in the UK in 2014. The number of people coming may also reflect the outcome of the EU referendum last year.

The ONS says nearly 80% of Romanians and Bulgarians of working age in Britain are in jobs and only 11,500 are unemployed. The remainder work in the home, study or have taken early retirement.

While more than 413,000 Romanian and Bulgarian citizens are living in Britain only 6,200 British citizens live in Romania and Bulgaria.

The figures are included in the last of six ONS reports published on the dynamics of migration between Britain and the EU, focusing on the people most likely to be affected by Brexit. Romania and Bulgaria are officially known as the EU2 countries.

The government is due later in autumn to publish its immigration white paper, which is expected to set out a system of temporary residence permits for new EU migrants after Brexit without the right to settle in Britain. Those already in Britain on Brexit day with five years’ residence in the UK are to be offered “settled status” with the right to remain.

Rich Pereira, the deputy director for population statistics for the ONS, said: “The picture of migration between the UK and the EU2 countries clearly shows a somewhat lopsided balance of movement, with the UK evidently proving an attractive labour market for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens since those countries’ full accession to the EU.

British workers haven’t been losing out to foreign labour and are unlikely to see job prospects dramatically improve because of Brexit immigration cuts, according to a survey of UK companies.

While almost half of firms faced skill or labour shortages in the past 12 months, less than 10 per cent said they targeted overseas workers to fill the gap, instead investing more in recruitment and training, the British Chambers of Commerce said Wednesday.

It added that the results “challenge the myth that UK firms are ignoring local workers in favour of overseas labour.”

A major shortage of migrant workers to harvest crops this summer is being reported by UK farmers and food processors. NFU horticulture chairman Ali Capper issued the warning during a union council meeting at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, on Tuesday (20 June). Findings from the NFU’s latest labour survey – due to be published later this week – are expected to confirm a shortfall in seasonal workers of up to 20%

Immigration is “particularly important” to the wholesale and retail, hospitality and health sectors, which employ around 1.5 million non-UK nationals, according to an official analysis.

Highlighting the severity of imposing curbs to immigration after Brexit research from the independent Office for National Statistics also shows that EU migrants account for as many as one in 10 of employees in some sectors of the British economy.

The ONS data claims that more than two million migrants from the EU were employed in industries including manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare and financial services during 2016.

The organisation’s annual report shows that last year’s estimated 3.4m workers – or around 11 per cent of the UK labour market – were foreign nationals. The number was made up of around 2.2m EU nationals and 1.2m non-EU nationals.

There has been a surge in the number of eastern Europeans working in Britain since the EU referendum but numbers from France, Germany and other western European countries have dipped, according to official figures.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of eastern Europeans working in Britain rose by 46,000 between June and September, to 1,053,000.

It is the first official indication that the vote has triggered an increase in labour from eastern Europe amid fears that Britain will close its doors, particularly to unskilled labour from the EU.

At the same time the numbers in work from western European countries fell by 7,000 to 937,000, suggesting that uncertainty about their status in a post-Brexit Britain is already beginning to put off some French and German people from remaining or coming to work in the UK.

The Brexit vote also seems to have led to a drop in the number of people coming to Britain from Romania and Bulgaria, the latest countries to join the EU.

The quarterly ONS labour market figures show that the number of non-UK nationals working in Britain rose by 241,000 in the 12 months to this September, to 3.49 million, or just under 11% of the UK workforce. Over the same period the number of Britons working in the UK rose by 213,000 to 28.39 million.

David Cameron’s claim that “around 40 per cent” of recent EU migrants receive benefits is based on a two-year-old dataset beset by “uncertainty and limitations”, the Government’s own analysis has said.

The statistic is based on a five per cent sample from March 2013, which indicated that between 37 and 45 per cent of EU migrants were supported by the benefits system. Downing Street briefed journalists ahead of Mr Cameron’s speech that 43 per cent of EU migrants received support. The estimate also excludes EU migrants studying in the UK.

In his speech Mr Cameron said: “We now know that, at any one time, around 40 per cent of all recent European Economic Area migrants are supported by the UK benefits system, with each family claiming on average around £6,000 a year of in work benefits alone, and over 10,000 recently-arrived families claiming over £10,000 a year.”

The figures were subject to a formal complaint to the UK Statistics Authority, after the charity Full Fact said no independent data had been published to support the claim.

The Department for Work and Pensions later published a “one-off ad hoc analysis in support of the Prime Minister’s speech”. The analysis said the 37 to 45 per cent range was used “to reflect the uncertainty and limitations” in the datasets

Official government statistics reveal that EU migrants are in fact less likely to claim out-of-work benefits than UK nationals, and more likely to claim in-work benefits. As of February 2015, according to DWP stats, only 2.2 per cent of those claiming out-of-work benefits were EU migrants, even though they make up six per cent of the total population

Net migration to Britain is now higher than it was when David Cameron took office despite his “no ifs, not buts” promise to cut it to “tens of thousands” by this May’s general election, new official figures are expected to show on Thursday.

The last set of quarterly migration figures before the general election are now widely expected to show that Cameron and the home secretary, Theresa May, have spectacularly missed their politically sensitive target to reduce net migration below 100,000 by this May.

The figures to be published on Thursday are now expected to show that it has actually risen above its original level of 244,000 when they took office in May 2010 and promised to cut it by more than 60%.

The previous set of quarterly figures published in November by the Office for National Statistics figures put net migration to Britain in the previous 12 months at 260,000 – the highest level since the last general election.

The net migration figure represents the flow of people coming to live in Britain for more than 12 months minus the flow of people leaving Britain to live abroad for more than 12 months.