Legal News

Commons leader Andrew Lansley has denied allegations that the government has delayed reading the Immigration Bill until after the 31 December deadline has passed for lifting border restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria.

More than 60 Conservative MPs have tabled an Amendment to the Immigration Bill, which would extend border restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria until 2018.

Mr Lansley has said, however, that the Bill is not due to be debated until 2014, after the border controls have been lifted.

He has denied this has been a deliberate move on the part of government to face down growing concerns over the number of new migrants from Romania and Bulgaria who might arrive in the UK after 1 January 2014. The Immigration Bill is due to return to the Commons in the New Year, but Mr Lansley said other bills also needed to be read before the Christmas parliamentary recess on 19 December.

By the time the bill is read, Romanian and Bulgarian nationals will have full rights to live and work in the UK, meaning the Conservative rebel Amendment to the Bill would no longer be considered.

The revelation about the timing of the Bill’s return to the House of Commons was made in a pre-Christmas announcement about Commons business made by Mr Lansley before Parliament closes for its Christmas break.

However, some Tory MPs have asked why the timing of the Bill’s return to the House means the Amendment to the Immigration Bill will no longer be included.

Tom Reckless MP said:

“Why are remaining stages of the Immigration Bill being delayed, when it would surely make sense for the House to vote on whether to extend immigration restrictions for Bulgaria and Romania in advance of them being lifted on 1 January?"

When the Bill returns to the House of Commons it will be at the report stage, which is when MPs can discuss the Bill in its amended stage after the committee stage.

Mr Lansley replied to Mr Reckless that the Bill was not being “delayed” – but that there were five other Bills being considered in Parliament before the Christmas break.

Some suspect the timing of the Bill returning to the Commons may enable the government to avoid having to discuss the Amendment to extend restrictions on Romania and Bulgaria – and so avoid a potentially difficult political situation.

The Amendment was tabled by Nigel Mills MP and won the support of Conservative colleagues after reports in the media of growing public concern about further widespread immigration from Eastern Europe.

However, many Bulgarians and Romanians already live and work in the UK, taking low-paid or seasonal manual jobs such as fruit picking, packing and hotel work.

The government has also set out proposals for limiting access to benefits for new migrants to the UK, meaning newcomers would have to wait three months before they could claim benefits – and could only claim them for a maximum of six months unless they had a genuine prospect of finding employment in the UK.

Recent research has shown, however, that migrants to the UK are much less likely to claim benefits than UK nationals – and have contributed £25 billion to the economy since 2000.


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