May, who favoured staying in the European Union but has promised to deliver on the June 23 referendum vote by steering Britain out of the bloc, said such systems were hard to manage and there was no “silver bullet” on immigration.
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British MPs on Monday debated a petition signed by more than 4.1 million people demanding a second referendum on European Union membership.
Mr Davis, addressing parliament for the first time since he was appointed after the vote, said the country could restore control over immigration and still get access to the EU’s single market because it was not in Brussels’ interest to hurt trade.
Instead, the premier is said to be looking at a system that will stop migrants heading to British shores to search for work.
Mr Jenkin warned the major challenge to introducing a points-based system was inadequate funding. In Australia, they have a points-based system and they have higher immigration per capita than Britain.
Mr Davis, who was flanked in the Commons by fellow Leave campaigners Boris Johnson and Liam Fox, defended the prime minister’s position, adding that an alternative to the points-based system could be tougher.
It would have seen equal access to the United Kingdom for citizens from across the globe based on certain criteria such as skills and qualifications, without giving any special access to those from the EU.
The UK’s departure will be formally triggered “as expeditiously as possible”, he said.
“I’m anxious”, Nigel Farage, one of the most prominent Brexit campaigners and former head of the UK Independence Party, told BBC radio when asked about May’s comments. Labour MPs wanted to know when the government was going to implement Vote Leave’s promises while Leave’s Michael Gove took the opportunity to have a pop at, what he called, “the soi-disant experts”. “It’s now clear that very few of their pledges were worth the paper they were written on”.
May’s words will fuel fears among voters and Eurosceptic lawmakers that having a pro-Remain prime minister in charge will result in a watered-down version of Brexit that does not represent what people voted for.
No 10 sources insisted May was still intending to honour the essence of what people voted for by bringing in a system that will be more effective at curbing immigration than the Vote Leave and Ukip idea.
Brexit minister Robin Walker said at the closing stages of the debate: “This was a once in a generation vote and that decision must be respected”.
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However, Mrs May said there were questions about whether such systems ever worked, but vowed that free movement of European Union citizens could not continue in its present state after Brexit. “But of course having legal control over immigration is the vital first step to controlling immigration”, he told BBC Radio Four’s Westminster Hour. We can not afford this paradox …
