Nick Boles says arrivals from Romania and Bulgaria will put pressure on Britain's housing and public services
Planning minister Nick Boles has said he is "nervous" about the impact of immigration from Romania and Bulgaria on housing and public services, risking re-fuelling what is becoming a diplomatic row with the two countries.
Boles, seen as an ally of David Cameron, was speaking as controversy over the lifting of immigration restrictions on the two EU member states at the end of this year continues to cause problems on the government's own back benches.
Ministers are also nervous because even if claims of a "surge" in immigration are exaggerated, only a few tens of thousands of new immigrants would threaten promises to cap net migration at less than 100,000 by 2015.
Boles told the Spectator magazine that the previous Labour government showed "deep complacency" over the issue when similar immigration restrictions were lifted on Poland and other east European entrant countries in 2004, driving a larger-than-expected 1.7m immigrants into the UK in the last decade.
"We should have been more worried than we were about the pressure on housing and other public services from the last set of entrant countries...[and] ended up in a very, very difficult situation...the ripples from which are going to literally affect an entire generation," he said.
"I absolutely believe that they have as much of a right to a home as you or I. But the fact is that places a lot of pressure on the system which was already not delivering ... so I would be nervous about it."
Boles added that he supported the "noises" from home secretary Theresa May and immigration minister Mark Harper about ensuring rules about income and job prospects were tightened up to prevent people travelling to the UK to immediately claim benefits. "We owe it to people who work bloody hard at the moment and have a bloody tough time," he added.
Downing Street appeared to back the minister, reitterating the government's line that it would "not [be] a soft touch, nor [be] seen as such". Acknowledging the huge discontent among Conservative MPs, a No 10 source said the prime minister was taking "a strong personal" interest in the issue, including attending a cabinet sub committee set up to look at Britain's "pull factors" for immigrants, in particular the benefits system.
"Action to tackle illegal immigration and ensure we are properly protecting our benefits, public services and labour market from misuse needs concerted cross-Government work," said the source. "Whether it's access to NHS services or tightening up the rules around housing, the PM is determined that we take a common sense approach. It's a question of fairness, and also ensuring that we reduce the 'pull factors' that might encourage migrants from new EU countries to settle in Britain rather than any other EU country."
On Monday, Tory backbenchers pressed Harper repeatedly for official estimates of what likely immigration from Romania and Bulgaria would be when the restrictions lift on December 31. Tory Philip Hollobone claimed it was "madness to open our borders to 29 million people when we have absolutely no idea how many are going to come to this country". Another Conservative, John Baron, questioned whether "our public services can cope with any surge of immigration" when the minimum wage is "five to six times higher in this country than it is in Bulgaria or Romania".
But Harper repeated the government's line that it could not provide useful estimates, partly because the UK was one of eight countries lifting immigration restrictions on the same date, including France and Germany. "Speculative projections about future inflows cannot be made with any degree of accuracy and are, therefore, not particularly helpful," he told MPs.
"That is why the Government are focused on dealing with the abuse of free movement rights and reducing the pull factors for migration."
Labour MPs meanwhile urged the government to crack down on employers who do not pay the minimum wage and landlords who "cram" sometimes dozens of people into rented accommodation, often fuelling immigration of cheap labour.
Officials from Bulgaria and Romania have already said the UK will not be first choice for many of their nationals when immigration restrictions are limited, with one Bulgarian employment official citing Spain, Italy and Greece as preferred destinations.
The Romanian ambassador to London, Ion Jinga, told the Daily Telegraph last month that his compatriots do not want to "conquer" Britain or "take people's jobs and houses". The country also hit back at reports last month of a UK advertising campaign to deter immigrants by focussing on the negative aspects of life in Britain with their own ads urging Brits to vist their country. One of the Romanian adverts claimed half the women in the country looked like the Duchess of Cambridge, and the "other half" her sister, Pippa Middleton.
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