PM clashes with minister over Turkey

DAVID Cameron clashed with one of his senior ministers yesterday over the prospects of Turkey joining the European Union.

In a blunt rebuke, he said Armed Forces minister Penny Mordaunt was ‘absolutely wrong’ to suggest that Britain would not be able to veto Turkey’s application.

Miss Mordaunt said it was ‘ very likely’ that Turkey would join the EU within the next eight years.

And she insisted British voters would never get another chance to block Turkish membership if they opt to remain in the EU next month.

‘This is a matter for the British people to decide and the only shot that they will get at expressing a view on this is in this referendum,’ she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. ‘I don’t think the UK will be able to stop Turkey joining.’

But the Prime Minister, who has championed Turkish membership of the EU for years, hit back in a TV interview shortly afterwards. He told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: ‘It is not remotely on the cards that Turkey is going to join the EU at any time soon.’

Brexit campaigners were quick to point out that the UK has never held a referendum on whether a new country should join the EU. So although the Government technically has a veto, voters are not likely to get a direct chance to block Turkish membership if they choose to keep Britain in the EU.

Justice minister Dominic Raab backed Miss Mordaunt, saying our veto on Turkey joining was ‘theoretical’ given that the policy is backed by Mr Cameron and Brussels.

‘Theoretically on paper we’ve got a veto, in practice we don’t,’ he told Sky News. ‘It is clear that the direction of travel is that Turkey will join the EU, the establishment in this country and in Brussels want it and all we’re saying is not that this is a right or wrong thing but just be honest about the cost.’ Brexit campaigner Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, last week put Turkey centre stage in the referendum debate. He warned that up to five million EU migrants could head to Britain by 2030 if Turkey and other applicant states are allowed to join. Mr Gove claimed this additional pressure on the NHS would make it ‘unsustainable’.

Turkey’s application has been fasttracked by Brussels in return for help with stemming the migrant crisis. But Mr Cameron still claimed that on current progress, Turkey would not become a member of the EU ‘until about the year 3000’.

Also weighing in yesterday was former Labour Cabinet Minister Ed Balls, who said Turkish workers should never be offered free movement to the UK because of the strain it would place on resources.

In a surprise intervention, he admitted there was ‘no way’ Britain could cope with the likely influx of migrants from Turkey, Serbia and Albania, which are among five countries going through the process of joining the EU.

Mr Balls, now a leading figure in the Remain campaign, urged Mr Cameron to allay growing public fears about the issue by ruling out ever granting free movement rights to Turkish workers.

‘I think the Prime Minister is going to have to say Turkey could only come into the European Union if free movement was off the table for Turkey and for Serbia and Albania,’ he told ITV. ‘There’s no way in which we can make free movement work for this many countries on this scale.’

Mr Raab added: ‘In Turkey you have got 75million people, the minimum wage is £1 an hour, just think about the impact that will have if they join, on low- skilled jobs, wages, the NHS, housing.’

Government sources last night insisted that the UK would impose ‘transitional controls’ on Turkey to prevent free movement of labour until the country’s economy was broadly in line with our own.

But an insider at the Vote Leave campaign said it was ‘incompatible with EU law’ to prevent Turkey eventually gaining free movement rights if it joins.

Mr Cameron has previously pledged to be the ‘strongest possible advocate’ for Turkey’s membership of the EU, offering to help the country ‘pave the road from Ankara to Brussels’.

‘Won’t join until the year 3000’