Cameron Vows Curb on Welfare for Migrants, Threatens EU Exit

By Robert Hutton and Svenja O’Donnell Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

In 2013, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron promised a renegotiation of Britain’s EU... Read More

David Cameron raised the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union unless fellow leaders agree to let him restrict access to welfare payments for migrants.
In a speech in central England today, the prime minister demanded that Europeans arriving in the U.K. receive no welfare payments or state housing until they’ve been resident 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 been forced to make a speech in an attempt to counter the rise of the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party. In 2013, he promised a renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership and then a referendum on leaving. With UKIP gaining ground and
now holding two seats in Parliament, Cameron said that immigration, the focus of UKIP’s campaigning, will be a “key part” of that negotiation.
“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, repeated in 2011 as a “no ifs, no buts” promise, has undermined Cameron’s credibility ever since, as incoming numbers have risen.

Missed Target

Home Secretary Theresa May said this week the goal is “unlikely” to be met. Cameron today described it as an “ambition” 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 yesterday. Immigration from other EU nations was at a record high.
The failure to cut the numbers coming 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 catch-up, very scared of the UKIP vote and realizing he’s out of touch,” UKIP leader Nigel Farage told BBC television. “The closer he comes to our position, the more justified people feel in voting for us.”
UKIP argues that immigration can only be controlled by leaving the EU. Cameron dismissed that argument in his speech.

‘Snake Oil’

“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 Labour Party, Ed Miliband, who was visiting northeast England, said that “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.

No Norway

The prime minister took on those in his party and UKIP who advocate a Norwegian or Swiss-style relationship with the EU. He said their membership of the European Economic Area meant they had to accept freedom of movement as the price of accessing the EU single market.
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 didn’t mention options that had been floated in recent weeks including a cap on numbers of migrants or an “emergency brake” on immigration.
“I don’t actually think that would be effective,” he said, when challenged about this after his speech. “There are countries in Europe with very high levels of immigration that don’t want those sorts of controls.”

Alarm Bells

The speech at a factory was briefly interrupted by an alarm, prompting Cameron to joke that it was the sound of alarm bells in Brussels.
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.”
Salim Rana, a Bangladesh-born Italian national who moved to London with his wife and children in May and works at a Subway Restaurants outlet, said benefit restrictions would make it “more difficult” for immigrants. “But I moved to England because schools and hospitals are better and the English language -- for my children, English language is important. Not benefits.”
London Mayor Boris Johnson, considered a potential successor to Cameron, said it would be “reasonable” for Cameron to put into place measures to discourage migrants seeking to exploit welfare benefits.
“Britain has a very generous regime,” Johnson told reporters today in Singapore. “It’s entirely legitimate for a country to look at whether that’s having a suction effect.”
Still, Johnson said, it’s important the government doesn’t keep out “people who can be of value to our economy.”