This in from Isle of Wight Conservative MP Andrew Turner’s office, in their own words. Ed
Mr Turner is responding to the speech made by the Business Secretary, the Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP, at the Liberal Democrats’ conference held in Glasgow earlier this week.
Dr Cable said that abuse must be dealt with and that there must be a crack-down on ‘benefit tourism’, but ‘not at the expense of the EU Single Market and its free movement of workers’. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that EU immigration has increased by 44,000 over the last year and non EU immigration by 19,000.
Mr Turner, responded saying:
“What the Liberal Democrats are doing is assuring us on one hand that all problems arising from ‘benefit tourism’ will be dealt with, while on the other hand showing they want to allow continued uncontrolled immigration into this country from the EU.
“The number of people immigrating into the UK is increasing. Although the Government has been successful in slowing down the number of people coming in from outside the EU, much of our problem is still the numbers of people coming here from inside the EU – which at the moment we have no control over.
“It is no good Dr Cable saying that the solution must not be at the expense of the EU Single Market and its free movement of workers; this is precisely where the problem lies. We have to make it very clear that British people must be considered first for British jobs.”
Image: Neil Stokes under CC BY 2.0
