Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has warned Britain that the EU may impose immigration controls on British nationals if the UK border is closed to Europeans in the event of a Brexit.

Leave campaign leaders are proposing a points system for work visas by 2020 if the UK votes to leave the EU. And Rutte said in an interview with the BBC that the rest of the EU would have no choice but to impose similar rules in return.

The Leave proposals would be ‘very bad news for the UK, for the Netherlands, for Europe as a whole, for two reasons,’ the Dutch prime minister said.

‘First of all, take the Netherlands and the UK, we are both sea-faring nations. Our ability to create jobs, our future growth, is built on the free market. It’s built on open borders,’ he said.

‘And, secondly, it would be unavoidable, inevitable, for us and for many others in Europe to follow the same proposals, to implement a points system in the rest of the European Union.

‘So you would get a race to the bottom. And that is exactly what you don’t want.’