Normally the Today programme is the best place to go every morning for essential Westminster listening. But today there was a good case for tuning into BBC Radio Kent, which has been broadcasting an interview with David Cameron recorded yesterday when he was campaigning for the byelection in Rochester. Cameron used the interview to deliver his first substantial public response to the reports that Angela Merkel thinks he is getting close to the “point of no return” on the route to leaving the EU. Merkel says free movement of labour in the EU is “non-negotiable”. But Cameron said this morning that free movement was not an “unqualified right”.
Of course there is the freedom of movement in Europe, but the point I’ve been making is that it is not an unqualified right. And it is important, we’ve already qualified it, we’ve said that you can’t come here and immediately claim benefits. We’ve said that if you come here and claim benefits, that after six months you should go home, we’ve said that if you come here and you can’t support yourself and you’re begging on the streets you should return to the country you came from. We’ve already made qualification, but my view is that there is a lot more we can do to make sure that we properly control immigration into our country, both from outside the European Union, where we’ve cut migration quite substantially under this government, but we also need to take steps with Europe as well. As far as I’m concerned the British public are the boss, they’ve made it very clear they want this issue sorted out, and that’s exactly what I want to do ...
I’ve had good conversations with Angela Merkel about this, and she’s talked about the issues they’ve had in Germany with the problems of migration and particularly this issue of people being able to claim benefits. So look, of course we’re not all instantly going to agree, and of course this will be a tough negotiation, but the point I’d make is look, you’ve got one leader, David Cameron, the Conservative party who have a very clear view that we need to have a renegotiation and then a referendum on Europe. We have a plan to bring our immigration under control, and I don’t hear that plan either from Labour or the Liberal Democrats or indeed Ukip. Because of course if you vote Ukip you probably end up with a Labour government and no immigration control at all.
We’ll probably hear more about this at PMQs.
First, though, I’ll be covering Iain Duncan Smith’s evidence to the work and pensions committee in detail. Here’s the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee about the work of his department.
12pm: David Cameron faces Ed Miliband at PMQs.
Around 12.40pm: MPs begin a debate on a Labour motion calling for the top rate of income tax to go back to 50%.
2.15pm: Mark Sedwill, permanent secretary at the Home Office, and other officials give evidence to the public accounts committee about the removal of foreign offenders.
2.30pm: The armed services chiefs give evidence to the Commons defence committee.
As usual, I will be also covering all the breaking political news from Westminster, as well as bringing you the most interesting political comment and analysis from the web and from Twitter. I will post a summary at lunchtime, and another at the end of the day.
If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
