I appreciate you have taken that impression, but you're missing the important point that this is a change in policy. The policy document says that "freedom of

I appreciate you have taken that impression, but you're missing the important point that this is a change in policy. The policy document says that "freedom of movement" ends – you are correct that it is written plainly, and it is technically correct - freedom of movement rights under EU law will end. However, the position of the previous government was that EEA citizens would be able to continue to freely enter the UK for the transitional period—even if no deal was secured—up until December 2020. That means that while "freedom of movement" as an EU-granted right would end, there would still be effective "freedom of movement" into the UK for EU workers, explicitly because there will be no system in place to differentiate between UK-resident and non-UK-resident EU citizens at the border. The transitional period applies to immigration into the UK while the new "skills-based immigration system" is implemented. You can see this from the policy document: "The details of the UK’s future skills-based immigration system are set out in a white paper published on 19 December 2018. It will take some time to implement this new system… therefore, temporary transitional arrangements will apply from 31 October 2019… The transition period will be in place until 31 December 2020." The paragraph immediately above says: "The information below is concerned with those EU citizens who arrive in the UK after exit, not those residing here before the UK withdraws from the EU." This is explicitly not to do with EU citizens who are already resident in the UK.