UK-EU Renegotiation

Paul Scully Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can let the House into a little secret. The reason why there were 500 days between the announcement of the Scottish referendum and the referendum itself is that I was so determined that there was going to be one question and one question only that I granted the former First Minister, the right hon. Member for Gordon (Alex Salmond), the right to name the date. He wanted to make sure that the referendum took place after as long as possible, after the anniversary of Bannockburn, after everything—everything he could throw in. I have to say that, from my point of view, the result was still very clear.

[Paul Scully (Sutton and Cheam) (Con)]

Benefits as a pull factor for migration might have been blunted somewhat by these proposals but they have not been eliminated. Arguably the bigger pull factor for migration is our successful economy and job creation in the UK. Will the Prime Minister tell us what the draft proposals will do to enable the UK to control immigration from within the European Union in the long term, beyond the four years of the emergency brake?

[The Prime Minister]

On the long-term approach, we are dealing with the abuses of free movement with a more comprehensive package than ever before to deal with the fraudsters, the criminals and the sham marriages. We have the emergency brake which will deliver a four-year welfare brake, which I think is significant. Frankly, I am sure that the eurozone economies will start to recover over time; that has been one of the issues. In the long term, we need to do better at controlling immigration from outside the EU but we also need a welfare policy and a training policy inside our own country, which we increasingly have, to train up the people in this country to do the jobs that our strong economy is providing.