Immigration Solicitors

Prime Minister David Cameron is set to confront Tory MPs, led by rebel Nigel Mills, over work restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians who come to Britain.

Mr Mills has confirmed that he plans to impose specific work restrictions on the EU migrants in defiance of EU law, by tabling an amendment to the immigration bill.

The bill is due to be debated at report stage on 30th January in the House of Commons and it has been suggested by Downing Street that an agreement may well be reached when the tabled amendments have been scrutinised. Immigration solicitors are awaiting the outcome of the debate.

As ministers are preparing for the report stage of the bill, John Hayes, No 10’s ambassador to the right wing of the Tory party, has been dispatched in an effort to reach agreement with Mr Mills and other rebel MPs. Initially, the immigration bill was held up when the chief whip, Sir George Young, told Downing Street that it could not proceed until an agreement was reached with Mr Mills, who benefits from strong support among fellow Tory MPs.

Benefits restrictions

John Hayes and Sir George Young met with Nigel Mills at No 9 Downing Street when Mills declared that ministers had still not made sufficient provision in the amendments supported by the Prime Minister. Before Christmas, No 10 had announced that EU migrants would need to wait for a period of three months before they were permitted to claim benefits – a move considered to be designed to appease Mills.

Originally, Mills’ amendment aimed to allow Britain to keep “transitional controls” on Bulgarian and Romanian workers, however these were removed on 1st January 2014. Now he wants another version to be reintroduced and enforced until 2018. This amendment is based on the premise that Bulgaria and Romania have failed to put into effect a number of commitments, which formed part of their treaties for EU accession. However Downing Street maintains that such controls on the countries are tantamount to breaching EU law.

Next steps

Nigel Mills has had excellent support among Conservative MPs, who are concerned that the party will be damaged if David Cameron does not succeed in meeting his target, which is to reduce net migration to tens of thousands of people. Generally, however, the target is not expected to be achieved, partly because of migration to the UK from the EU. Mills believes that the current amendment would, at the very least, send out a clear signal that the Conservative party is still committed to meeting the original migration target, as set by the Prime Minister.

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