2M EU MIGRANTS GRAB OUR JOBS

AN extra 200,000 EU workers arrived in Britain last year, it emerged yesterday.

It lifted the number in UK jobs above two million, a huge blow to David Cameron’s plan to cut migration numbers.

The end-of-year figure is up from 1.8 million, recorded from October to

December 2014. Yesterday’s Office for National Statistics figures reveal the number of EU nationals working in Britain over the same months last year was estimated at 2,036,000.

It is the first time the number has topped two million in a calendar year and is nearly double the 1,087,000 recorded in 2009.

The new figures also reveal the number of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals working in Britain soared by 48,000 to a total of 202,000.

In total, the number of foreign nationals working here rose 254,000 over the last year to 3.22 million while the proportion of non- UK nationals in work rose from 3.8 per cent in 1997 to 10.2 per cent now.

The surge has intensified warnings that the Prime Minister’s attempt to cut net migration by limiting benefits is bound to fail.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “Mass EU migration continues, damaging prospects of ordinary British workers. Let’s leave the EU and control our borders.”

Tory MP Nigel Evans said: “These figures are staggering. As we move towards introducing a living wage, those numbers can only rise unless something dramatic is done.”

Broken

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Vote Leave pressure group, said: “The Prime Minister said he wanted to fix our broken immigration system but it’s crystal clear the trivial renegotiation won’t restore one iota of control over our borders.

“Even the PM’s own advisers have admitted that simply tinkering with the benefit system won’t affect immigration flows. The only way to do this is to vote to leave.”

There was further anger last night when Tony Blair spoke out to claim that the soaring number of migrants was “good” for Britain.

The former Labour prime minister, who agreed to relaxing border controls for a string of Eastern Europe countries during his time in office, said economic migration “is good, with appropriate rules”.

Urging the EU to welcome more refugees, he added: “Europe must open the door, for moral reasons, to those who flee from persecution.”

He also insisted he will campaign for Britain to stay in the EU during the forthcoming referendum debate and called for further “integration” into the European project.

But Mr Blair’s latest intervention on Europe drew mockery last night.

Lord Stoddart, an independent Labour peer and veteran Eurosceptic, said: “Once again Mr Blair demonstrates complete failure to understand how real people think.

“He could not be trusted on the EU when in office, promising us a referendum on the EU constitution and reneging on it, so he certainly can’t be trusted now.” The figures also show the number from Poland and seven Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 rose to 968,000, up from 895,000 in 2014.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “More British people are in work than ever, unemployment is at its lowest level for nearly a decade and nine in 10 people in jobs are UK nationals.

“We’ve taken action to protect the benefits system to ensure that EU migrants come to this country for the right reasons and to contribute to the economy.

“And as part of renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe, we aim to control immigration by reducing the artificial draw of our welfare system.”