Cameron bridles at EU on immigration
LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron raised the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union unless fellow leaders agree to let him restrict access to welfare payments for foreigners.
In a speech in central England on Friday, Cameron demanded that Europeans arriving in Britain receive no welfare payments nor state housing until they’ve been residents for four years. He said they should have a job offer before they get to Britain, shouldn’t receive unemployment benefits and should be removed from the country if they don’t find work within six months.
It’s the second time Cameron has made a speech to counter the rise of the U.K. Independence Party, which opposes the EU. In 2013, he promised a renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership and then a referendum on leaving.
With the party gaining ground and now holding two seats in Parliament, Cameron said immigration, the focus of the party’s campaigning, will be a “key part” of that renegotiation.
“If I succeed, I will, as I have said, campaign to keep this country in a reformed EU,” the prime minister said. “If our concerns fall on deaf ears and we cannot put our relationship with the EU on a better footing, then of course I rule nothing out.”
The speech reaffirmed Cameron’s target for net migration, first set out before the 2010 election, to reduce it to “tens of thousands” a year. This pledge has undermined Cameron’s credibility ever since, as incoming numbers have risen.
Home Secretary Theresa May said this week that the goal is “unlikely” to be met. Cameron described it as an “ambition” on Friday and said the government would set out further, more detailed metrics, so people could see where immigration was coming from.
Net migration to the U.K. surged 43 percent in the 12 months to June, with the number of long-term arrivals exceeding those leaving Britain by 260,000, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. Immigration from other EU nations was at a record high.
The failure to cut the number of people moving in has damaged Cameron’s Conservative Party. Immigration overtook the economy this year as the most-mentioned subject in Ipsos Mori’s poll of issues facing Britain.
“What we saw was a prime minister playing catchup, very scared of the UKIP vote and realizing he’s out of touch,” U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage told BBC television. “The closer he comes to our position, the more justified people feel in voting for us.”
The party argues that immigration can only be controlled by leaving the EU. Cameron dismissed that argument in his speech.
“We should distrust those who sell the snake oil of simple solutions,” the premier said. “There are no simple solutions. Managing immigration is hard. Those who say we would certainly be better off outside the EU only ever tell you part of the story.”
The leader of the main opposition Labor Party, Ed Miliband, who was visiting northeast England, said: “Cameron has no credibility on immigration. People are not going to believe his new promises when he’s broken his old promises.”
Answering questions after the speech, Cameron said his proposals will require EU treaty amendments. “There’s some question about which bits of the treaty we need to change, but it will need some treaty change,” he said.
In a first reaction from Poland, the country with the largest number of foreign nationals in Britain, Deputy Foreign Minister Rafal Trzaskowski said on Twitter that “there won’t be any approval for limits on freedom of movement for workers, which is one of the EU’s pillars and the greatest benefit from EU membership.”
Cameron’s coalition partner, Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said in televised remarks that “I doubt all of the 27 other countries across the European Union are going to sign up to every dot and comma of David Cameron’s blueprint.” He said there are “serious practical question marks about some of the proposals.”
Government policy on EU migrants has so far focused on restricting welfare payments to those out of work. By including payments to those who have jobs, Cameron aims to give a competitive advantage to British citizens, who would be able to top up low pay with welfare payments, while migrants working alongside them wouldn’t.
He stopped short of saying he would campaign to leave the EU if he didn’t get his way. Instead, he appealed to fellow leaders, saying changing welfare rules was “absolutely key” to his negotiation.
“I ask you to work with us on this,” he said. “Here is an issue which matters to the British people, and to our future in the European Union.”
He said he was “confident that, with goodwill and understanding, we can and will succeed.”
Information for this article was contributed by Sharon Chen, David Tweed, Thomas Penny, Tom Beardsworth, James G. Neuger and Dorota Bartyzel of Bloomberg News.