As part of the new system, the government is expected to drop plans for a salary threshold of £30,000 for applicants. The government immigration adviser, the Migration Advisory Committee, recommended last month that the UK should slash the main salary threshold for workers coming to Britain with a job offer to £25,600 per year after the post-Brexit transition period.

Alan Manning, chairman of the MAC, also said that while it would be possible to introduce a points-based system that allowed people with significant potential but no job offer to apply to come to the UK, the committee had struggled to understand what the government meant by "Australian-style, points based" system and suggested the idea was little more than a slogan.

'The PM stressed that we must demonstrate that the UK is open and welcoming to talent'.