Migration chaos as May calls for reform
TORY high command appeared to be in chaos over Britain’s border controls last night after dramatic pictures emerged of yet another lorryload of migrants sneaking into the UK.
As the referendum campaign exploded into a bitter Conservative civil war, Chancellor George Osborne insisted there would be ‘no’ change to EU rules on freedom of movement.
But only hours later, Home Secretary Theresa May publicly declared that further reform of the EU’s free movement edicts was needed.
Pro-Brexit campaigners claimed she had effectively labelled the Government’s renegotiation with Brussels not good enough – and blown a huge hole in the case for Remain.
It came as police discovered a lorryload of suspected illegal immigrants, including young children, trying to sneak into the UK.
When the doors were opened, the 11 migrants claimed they were ‘from Europe’.
The migrants, thought to be from Iraq, were discovered in Havering at 11.30am yesterday. Police found eight adults and three children, including a baby, inside the lorry.
The adults were arrested on suspicion of illegal entry into the UK. A police officer, on seeing the migrants sitting on boxes, shouted: ‘Do you speak English? Where are you from?’ One replied: ‘Europe.’ The lorry is thought to have travelled to the UK from Belgium. Under free movement rules, 500million EU citizens enjoy access to the UK. This will continue if Britain votes to Remain on June 23.
In a television interview last night, Mrs May broke days of near silence on Immigration to call for curbs on the free movement of people from the EU.
She said leaving the EU was not the ‘single answer’ to addressing public concern about mass immigration. But she suggested Mr Cameron’s modest reforms to welfare benefits for EU migrants did not go far enough.
She told the BBC: ‘I completely understand why people are concerned about immigration. There’s no silver bullet, there’s no one thing you can do that is suddenly going to deal with all the problems and concerns people have with immigration – and that includes leaving the EU, that’s not the single answer to this issue.
‘There are some changes coming up in free movement rules – we should look at further reform in the future.’
Mrs May’s dramatic intervention came only a few hours after George Osborne had ruled out making any changes to free movement laws. Asked if further changes were possible, he said: ‘The short answer is no.’
The Chancellor claimed: ‘We have a plan. And the plan is to restrict the welfare that people get when they come to this country so you don’t get out before you put in. That is the plan we will implement with the agreement of our partners.’
Downing Street denied a split with Mrs May. A Number 10 source said: ‘The Prime Minister has always said the process of reform continues after June 23.
‘Theresa May was right to refer to this as an ongoing process.’