John Baron MP supports amendment to Immigration Bill to limit new EU migrants

MP critical of Government talk of limiting benefits

John Baron MP has added his name to New Clause 1 of the Immigration Bill which aims to extend the ban on free movement of Bulgarian and Romanian migrants into this country until 31^st December 2018. John is critical of the Government’s preferred plan to deal with a possible influx of migrants by changing the benefit rules.

John said:

“The average salary here is far higher than in Romania or Bulgaria. This could lead to an influx of immigrants from these countries once transitional controls end in January next year. This would put added pressure on our already overstretched public services.”

“The Government’s proposal to counter the expected influx is to change the benefit rules. But this tinkers at the edges. It requires added bureaucracy which may not work and feeds the impression that migrants come here for the benefits. My experience is that migrants are hard working with relatively few wanting or needing benefits.”

“The answer instead is to delay their access to give time for us to assimilate those already here. We must learn from our mistake in 2004 when we greatly underestimated the extent of immigration. The other advantage of 2018 is that the electorate will have decided by then whether to be in the EU or not, assuming a Conservative general election victory enables us to deliver a referendum.”