Ministers are considering whether to allow European Union migrants who are in Britain when Theresa May triggers Brexit on Wednesday to continue to receive child benefits to send to families back home, it has been reported.

The Sunday Times said ministers on the Cabinet’s Brexit committee had been sent a document by the Department for Exiting the European Union, recommending that around three million EU migrants in the UK when the Prime Minister triggers Article 50 keep their welfare rights.

Those who arrive after Wednesday will not keep the benefits, but ministers have been warned that any attempt to withdraw them from those already here would risk Brussels taking tit-for-tat action to restrict health and pension rights of British expats in the EU, the newspaper said.

Any move to maintain child benefits as they are currently would risk breaking the Tories’ 2015 general election manifesto pledge to restrict tax credits and child benefits to EU migrants who have been in the country for four years.

The report comes just weeks after the