David Cameron has been warned by two of his closest allies that they would oppose any British attempt to restrict Europe’s rules on free movement of workers, in a further blow to the prime minister’s plans to limit immigration.

Mr Cameron, who flies to Helsinki today for talks with Nordic and Baltic leaders, faces warnings from his Finnish host that free movement of workers is a “holy” principle, while there is “meagre” support for major EU treaty reform. Alexander Stubb, Finland’s Anglophile prime minister, said he wanted to help Mr Cameron but there were lines that even his closest allies would not cross in an EU renegotiation.

Stefan L?fven, Sweden’s new centre-left prime minister, also criticised Mr Cameron’s call for limits to free movement, amid suggestions that the prime minister was considering a system of quotas.