Airport security

Emergency cap on EU migrants is needed says Isle of Wight MP

This in from Isle of Wight Conservative MP Andrew Turner’s office. Ed


Last week the Island’s MP, Andrew Turner, asked the Leader of the House, the Rt Hon William Hague MP, to find out from the Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon Phillip Hammond MP, whether an emergency cap on migrants would work.

I believe that an emergency cap is required because in the year ending March 2014 560,000 migrants came into the UK. For people from outside the European Union, we have more control, but for those within the EU we currently have no control whatsoever, and 295,000 people came into our country from other EU nations.

Mr Turner said:

“I suggested that an emergency cap might be appropriate to ensure no more than say 100,000 migrants are allowed to enter the UK. As I expected, I’m afraid Mr Hague told me he wasn’t aware of any workable proposal for such a cap under existing laws and treaties.

“The Prime Minister has made it clear that there should be a renegotiation of our relationship with the European Union and this is one of many areas where the sooner we re-gain our sovereignty the better. It should be the UK, not the EU who decides who we allow into our country.”

The Government is taking steps to reduce immigration; such as curbing ‘benefit tourism’ by reducing entitlement to benefits such as jobseekers allowance on arrival, but Mr Turner feels they must go much further to ensure that our borders are under our control once again.

Image: kalleboo under CC BY 2.0