EU migrants face a five-year ban on claiming benefits as Theresa May urged to make them wait for as long as non-EU arrivals

EU MIGRANTS are facing a five-year ban on claiming benefits as Theresa May is being urged to make them wait for as long as non-EU arrivals.

But Brexit Britain may still have to allow low-skilled EU migrants into the country because business is so dependent on foreign labour, a think tank admitted.

Migration Watch said the PM should consider a ‘Key Workers’ scheme that grants some less-skilled Poles and Romanians “essential to particular sectors of the economy” the right to enter the UK.

The think-tank said the transitional agreement could be critical in currying favour with eastern European leaders during Brexit talks.

Sources claimed the plans were among a number being actively considered by Ministers.

The proposal came as Migration Watch urged the PM to publish the UK’s plan for taking back control of Britain’s borders to “calm concerns”.

It renewed calls for work permits for skilled EU immigrants and called for a five year benefit ban for all new arrivals. It said this would cut net migration by as much as 100,000 a year.

But the plan for a key workers scheme marks a distinct change of tone for the organisation, which has previously argued all low-skilled labour should be denied entry.

And insiders said it signalled the Government may be considering such a move.

The Sun in September revealed Home Secretary Amber Rudd was studying a Migration Watch plan for Britain to only accept workers with well-paid job offers.

Migration Watch vice chair Alp Mehmet signalled the think tank was only talking about a very small number of low-skilled workers. But he said: “We have been looking at factories where they say they cannot currently do without Poles, Lithuanians – these key workers.

“So in this case it may be worth looking at a ‘tapering’ effect. We are talking about a small number and we’re not saying it should be open-ended.”

He added: “Overall if all are proposals take effect net migration should fall by 100,000 a year.”

Official figures earlier this month revealed the biggest surge in foreign-born workers in the UK since the expansion of the European Union. Of a 454,000 increase in net employment over the past year, workers born overseas accounted for nearly 95 per cent of the rise.

There are now more than 1 million eastern Europeans from the so-called ‘EU8’ – such as Poland and the Czech Republic - working in the UK as well as 279,000 Romanians and Bulgarians.

In September, Boris Johnson accused business chiefs of being addicted to cheap foreign labour. The Foreign Secretary said they had been “mainlining immigration like a drug” for 25 years.