You’re still too soft on migration, Tory MPs warn Cameron

DAVID Cameron’s plans to curb immigration do not go far enough and leave Britain at risk of ‘immensely serious social dangers’, a Conservative backbench manifesto claims.

Brian Binley, treasurer of the powerful 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said tougher controls were needed on migrants’ access to welfare and the jobs market.

In a pamphlet for the respected Civitas think-tank, he said immigrants’ country of origin should be made to pay for social security costs until they have made a significant contribution to the Exchequer.

There would also be automatic deportation for anybody given a one-year prison sentence or two court fines – a far tougher regime than is currently in place.

The document will increase pressure on the Prime Minister to toughen up the Tory Party’s position on immigration controls.

In November, Mr Cameron promised to stop EU migrants claiming in-work benefits, such as tax credits, and getting access to social housing for four years.

But he disappointed his backbenchers by stopping short of more robust action, including a temporary ban on migrants – the so-called emergency brake.

It emerged that No10 dumped the idea after German Chancellor Angela Merkel made it clear it would not win EU support.

The pamphlet by Mr Binley, one of the party’s most senior backbench figures, reflects wide- spread concern among the rankand-file that the UK has ‘surrendered control over its borders’.

It states: ‘Emerging policies have failed to be wide-ranging and ambitious enough. Failure to address public immigration concerns would carry immensely serious social dangers.’

Mr Binley, who co-authored the pamphlet with the academic Dr Lee Rotherham, continues: ‘The free movement of workers as permitted under EU rules means that the UK has lost control of the supply side of its workforce.

‘This would not be an issue but for the fact that it is subsidising its own native workforce to remain unemployed and our long-term uncompetitiveness by hiring in outside labour.

‘This may be advantageous to the productivity of the companies in these areas, but it is disadvantageous to the taxpayer who has to effectively subsidise them by dole payments, while the UK workers affected fail to better themselves and rise up the employment ladder.’ He also accuses Labour of ‘cynically’ encouraging mass immigration, adding: ‘Those who endorse a level of mega-immigration that exceeds the ability of society to integrate the newcomers are deliberately attempting social change by different means.’

Mr Cameron sparked controversy this year by excluding immigration from his six key election themes.

The Office for National Statistics is expected to confirm this month that net migration is still 250,000 a year.

‘Serious social dangers’