Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-10-22-Speech-2-554-000"
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"en.20131022.42.2-554-000"2
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"Mr President, not one in a thousand British people would know who Commissioner Andor was. They would not be able to pick him out of a line-up and yet he is really rather powerful. He is the governor. He is the man who decides who can come to Britain and who can claim benefits. He has more power than a British Government Minister.
But I have to thank him for his study, because he is the one who has told us that there are 600 000 economically-inactive Eastern Europeans in Britain – something our own government was not able to tell us. I suppose I have to admire his commitment to his job. After all he is going to take the UK Government to court to make sure that we do not treat Eastern Europeans any differently to our own people. So it is certain that he means business.
I know that this is a very complex area, but let us just look at one in-work social benefit, shall we? Child benefit. From Eastern Europe, at the moment, there are people to whom we are now paying child benefit for 50 000 children who do not even live in the United Kingdom. There is no possible justification for us doing that. It is costing us GBP 1 million a week, and it is yet another pull factor.
But of course, this whole issue is going to get bigger, because we appear to have learnt nothing from 2004. If you allow the unrestricted free flow of people between poor and rich countries, do not be surprised when you get a big result. We had a government prediction of 13 000 people a year, and it was something like 400 000 a year for the first two years. So we open the doors next year to Romania and Bulgaria. It means more oversupply in the unskilled labour market, a greater burden on the National Health Service and our schools and, yes – sadly – it is going to mean more crime too.
This issue will be the central issue of the European elections next year. It will be the central issue of whether Britain remains a member of the European Union. We are not against anybody from Eastern Europe, but we do believe that it is right and proper that we should restrict and decide who comes to live in our country."@en1
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