Polish politician calls for Tesco boycott over migrant benefits row
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Version 0 of 1. A senior Polish politician has called for a boycott of Tesco after David Cameron ignited a diplomatic row by saying he wanted to stop the country's migrants sending home their child benefit. The suggestion came from Jan Bury, leader of Poland's junior coalition party PSL, who was quoted by the state news agency as calling Cameron's policies "unfriendly and scandalous towards Poland and Poles". He said: "As Poles, we can also say 'no' to prime minister Cameron and his policies. We call on Poles to boycott British retailer Tesco." Several Polish politicians have expressed fury after Cameron said he wanted to change EU laws to stop benefits being paid for migrants' children who live abroad. He also called it a "monumental mistake" for Britain to have opened its borders so fully to the country in 2004. It forms part of Cameron's plan to push for changes to EU rules on welfare, as he seeks a new settlement with Brussels before a referendum on Britain's membership before the end of 2017. His spokesman said this week the remarks were "perfectly fair". But in a press conference on Tuesday, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said he would veto any attempt by Cameron to change EU laws on the issue "today, tomorrow and forever". He added: "No one has the right to single out Poles as a special group that is abusing or taking advantage." Amid growing tensions, Cameron spoke on the phone to Tusk last night to reiterate his position that the benefit system for EU migrants should be reviewed and reformed. It is understood the tone of the conversation was robust on both sides but there were no raised voices. The issue of a Tesco boycott was not raised during the exchange. A Downing Street spokesman said: "On EU free movement, the prime minister made clear his longstanding view, reiterated in recent days, that the lack of transitional controls for new EU member states in 2004 was the wrong approach and had put pressure on local communities, and that we need to address the impact on countries' benefits systems, including for example paying child benefit to families living abroad. "The prime minister emphasised that this was a pan-EU issue relevant to all member states and people should engage with the substance of the PM's proposals. Moving forward, they agreed to hold further bilateral discussions on how the UK and Poland can work together to better manage the impact of intra-EU migration on social security systems." A number of Polish politicians have joined the debate in recent days, with Radek Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, arguing that Polish immigrants contributed twice as much to the British state as they claimed in benefits. Poland's ambassador to the UK, Witold Sobków, told Cameron not to stigmatise his countrymen as benefit cheats. Tesco told Reuters the company deals in "retail, not politics". Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |