Eastern European revolt kills off migrant benefits reform

BRITAIN was yesterday told an ‘emergency brake’ on migrant benefits is the best it can hope for after David Cameron was beaten back on reforms by Eastern Europe.

The PM’s plan to stop in-work benefits for migrants in their first four years in the UK is effectively dead after protests from other EU leaders – with Lithuania’s president accusing him of blackmail.

Instead, Mr Cameron was offered a temporary suspension of in-work benefits to EU migrants, if it was judged that public services were being overwhelmed – leaving Brussels with the final say.

Dalia Grybauskaite – a karate black belt – laid bare Eastern European irritation at what they considered to be ‘discriminatory’ plans to curb migrant benefits at dinner on Thursday, when Mr Cameron addressed other EU leaders for 45 minutes.

One EU diplomat said: ‘The Lithuanian president was the most vocal against his proposals. I mean everyone was saying that discrimination was a red line, but she was saying what he was doing was “blackmail”. Grybauskaite said, “We cannot have just one member state pushing everyone to agree to something just for them.”’

Poland’s prime minister Beata Szydlo – leading the charge against the PM - said she was not prepared to accept Mr Cameron’s proposal on welfare. She added: ‘Many well-educated Polish people live in the UK and work there and are building the GDP of Great Britain.’

Mr Cameron said the EU had promised to find ‘solutions’ – not compromises – to his four key demands of curbing migration, increasing competitiveness, freeing Britain from the EU’s commitment to ‘ever closer union’ and measures to stop the eurozone countries ganging up on non-members.