UK to Pay 'Huge Price' for Prioritizing Migration Control in Brexit - Dutch PM

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The United Kingdom will be negatively affected, especially in terms of economic growth, by its decision to prioritize migration control over single market membership, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Thursday.

"[The UK] is now making a choice to control migration, and they are paying a huge price because the economic growth rate of the UK will be impacted negatively by the fact that it will leave the biggest market in the world. So they are willing to pay the price, but it has also a consequence for the rest of Europe but particularly for the UK," Rutte said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, as quoted by The Guardian newspaper.

On Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May set out her government’s priorities for EU exit in a much-anticipated speech, ruling out a partial membership of the bloc but vowing to strive for continued ties with its member states. May said that the United Kingdom would "always want immigration, especially high-skilled immigration,…. always want immigration from Europe,… always welcome individual migrants as friends," but at the same time it wanted to control the number of immigrants.

The United Kingdom held a referendum on June 23, 2016, deciding to leave the European Union. May said the country would trigger the Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty by the end of March, which would mark the beginning of the withdrawal negotiations, as well as negotiations on free trade with London's international partners.