Immigration: Parties Accused Of Point-Scoring

Britain has been accused of political point-scoring over fears that a large number of migrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria will arrive when restrictions are relaxed.

Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean told Sky News' Murnaghan: "It is always very easy to win supplementary points, votes, electoral advantages using the already classic topic of migration.

"This is of course, from our perspective at least, fundamentally wrong."

Migration Watch UK has forecast that 250,000 people from Romania and Bulgaria will arrive in Britain by 2019 after restrictions on workers from the countries are removed at the end of this year.

European Union rules allow citizens to stay in the UK for up to three months. To stay longer they must be able to prove they are working, studying or are self-sufficient.

Mr Corlatean said he did not expect the change to result in there being a "huge presence" of Romanians in the UK after January 1, 2014.

Responding to reports that the British Government is considering ways to limit migration from the two newest EU members and restrict workers' rights to certain benefits, including the NHS, Mr Corlatean said the vast majority of Romanians already living and working in the UK were "well-integrated into British society".

He went on: "They are contributing, they are paying their taxes ,,, this is a very positive thing."

Mr Corlatean added he had "received official assurances from the British government that points to Directive 38 of the European Union (relating to free movement between member states) will be respected".

A YouGov poll commissioned by the Murnaghan programme found that around two thirds (64%) of British adults thought Romanians and Bulgarians should not be allowed the same working rights in Britain as those from other EU countries. A similar number (65%) were worried about the curbs being relaxed.

Both these figures rose to three quarters among Conservative voters.

Immigration was one of the single big issues which impacted the outcome of the Eastleigh by-election last week.

The Liberal Democrats retained the seat, but the Conservative Party was pushed into third place by the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) - which advocates withdrawal from the European Union.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage has said Romanian citizens could be attracted by Britain's benefits system.

"We are signed up to the European Union and all the while we are members of it, there is nothing we can do to control the number of people that come here from any other European country and their immediate entitlement to the entire social security system of this country," he said.

He added: "I'm not against Romania or Romanians but I do think the point has come with youth unemployment at 22% for us to say enough's enough, let's have a controlled migration policy into Britain and not an open door."