Britain wide open to EU free movement and ‘freeloading’ - Philip Hammond
|
Version 0 of 1. Britain is “wide open” to abuse of the right to free movement of people across the European Union, the foreign secretary Philip Hammond has said in a toughening of the government’s rhetoric on the EU. As the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, accused David Cameron of presiding over the most significant decline in Europe for a generation, the foreign secretary went on the offensive by warning of freeloading. “Free movement to work is one of the principles of the EU,” Hammond told MPs in the House of Commons. “Free movement to freeload is not one of the principles of the EU and Britain is not the only country that is affected by this problem and not the only country determined to address it.” The foreign secretary was explaining to MPs the thinking behind Cameron’s main EU pre-election speech in November in which the prime minister pledged to curb the abuse of in-work and out-of-work benefits by EU migrants. Under the PM’s plans, EU migrants would be denied access to in-work benefits for four years. An effective ban would be imposed on out-of-work benefits by ensuring that EU migrants would be deported after six months if they have failed to find a job. There would be a ban on claiming benefits in the first six months of their stay in the UK. Hammond made clear that Britain believes that it is vulnerable to abuse because it does not have a contributory system for out of work benefits along the lines of some EU member states. Ministers also say that Britain’s generous in-work benefits, in the form of tax credits, mean that high skilled migrants from poorer EU member states in eastern Europe can earn vastly more in Britain in low skilled jobs than if they remained at home performing professional jobs. In a separate appearance before the commons European scrutiny committee, the foreign secretary warned that Britain is vulnerable to the abuse of free movement. He said: “We are wide open to abuse. Now we have tightened up some things already. There are going to be more measures that we can introduce that will make it more difficult for people coming from the EU to abuse our system.” Hammond, who told MPs last year that the Tories were lighting a fire under the EU with their plans for a referendum on Britain’s EU membership, insisted that he has had some success in explaining British concerns to its EU partners. He told the committee: “The principle of freedom of movement to work is important to many of our European partners. But where they are willing to be flexible, quite significantly flexible I detect, is around dealing with the way that freedom has been stretched, some would say abused, and trying to get back to something that accords more closely to what we all understood by the right to freedom of movement to work as it was 20 years ago. So we need to work with our European partners around the art of the possible.” The foreign secretary added: “I have detected some sympathy [after] explaining Britain’s rather different situation: that we are the most densely populated country in Europe, that the south of England is a very densely populated part of the EU, and we have a population that is rising anyway before migration. We are in a very different position from many other member states. “Quite a number of people have said to me they hadn’t thought about those two particular issues in trying to understand where we, the Brits, are coming from on this issue. If you are German, or perhaps a Swede, it is an article of faith that you need inward migration to sustain your economy. We are in a different position from some of our European neighbours.” The remarks by Hammond came after the Guardian revealed that unemployed Britons in the EU are drawing more in benefits and allowances in nine of the wealthier EU member states than their nationals are claiming in the UK. Labour agrees on the need to reform the EU and to ensure benefits are not abused. But Douglas Alexander said in a speech in Paris that the Tories are damaging Britain’s standing in the EU with their hostile stance on the EU. The shadow foreign secretary said: “Before David Cameron became prime minister, Britain was at the heart of EU decision-making. Yet when he leaves Downing Street in May, he will have presided over the most significant decline in British influence in Europe for a generation.” |