“Orbán has failed to engage his more courageous self,” Mesterházy said.

Cameron still views Hungarians working in Britain as migrants and he makes no distinction between EU citizens and migrants and refugees, he added.

The radical nationalist Jobbik party said that the Hungarian government had missed out on an “historic opportunity”.

Márton Gyöngyösi, a Jobbik lawmaker, said Orbán had failed to put forward demands that are in the Hungarian interest. Orbán should have used Hungary’s alliance with the UK to advance Hungary’s interests in Europe, he added.

The green LMP opposition party said the government should create conditions for the 55,000 Hungarians living in Britain to return to Hungary. But if this proves beyond possibility then Orbán should stick up for the interests of Hungarians in the UK.

The opposition Együtt party said Orbán had not stood up strongly enough for Hungarians working in Britain and had therefore turned his back on his own voters.

The party said in a statement that Orbán had made a serious error at his joint press conference with Cameron by agreeing to the four points on which Cameron was seeking agreement with members of the bloc prior to the British EU membership referendum.

Orbán’s statement went against the interests of Hungarians working in the UK, the party added.

The Hungarian Liberal Party said in a statement that Orbán was pursuing a hypocritical policy on migrants: while branding “economic migrants” arriving from the East “as criminals” he simultaneously demands that Hungarians in the UK, who are in Britain in the hope of gaining a better standard of living, should get special treatment.

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MTI photo: Koszticsák Szilárd