The defence secretary has insisted the UK is “deadly serious” about measures to prevent the country’s benefit system being a “magnet for migration”, but he has given no hint of how a deal can be reached within the 62 days before the next EU summit.
Michael Fallon was speaking the morning after David Cameron spent four hours trying to persuade his EU partners that without concessions on migration there was a serious chance Britons would vote to leave the EU in a referendum fellow EU leaders expect next summer.
The prime minister claimed a pathway to an agreement had been mapped out at the meeting but seemed to be preparing to back down on his central demand that all EU migrants were barred from getting in-work benefits for four years.
The demand, set out in the party manifesto alongside a commitment that EU migrants would have to wait for social housing, appeared to breach EU rules on national discrimination or restricting free movement.
Cameron insisted his proposal of a four-year ban was still on the table, but it appears after Thursday’s late-night session a search is on for an alternative the UK can sell to voters. As the summit continued for another day, Cameron held a bilateral meeting with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and arranged other informal conversations to review his progress.
British officials are continually stressing other aspects of the four-part negotiation package in what appears to be an attempt to dilute the importance of the four-year ban on benefits. They are also highlighting other concessions already granted on child benefit and universal credit.
It is also regarded as significant that the French president, François Hollande, spoke of a reciprocal deal in which Britain might give ground on the issue of governance of the eurozone in return for concessions on migration. “The most difficult questions are those regarding the eurozone and welfare benefits for EU workers,” Hollande told reporters about Cameron’s four demands. “There can be adjustments, accommodation, but European rules and principles must be respected.”
All EU politicians are under electoral pressures of some sort over the issue of migration, but Cameron was emphasising the problem was uniquely acute in the UK due to the way the UK welfare system provides benefits from day one without the need to build a record of social security contributions.
Fallon played down the prospect of an “emergency brake” on migration being a suitable alternative to the welfare curbs proposed by Cameron, insisting that a “short-term solution” would not be enough. There is no guarantee that Britain would be able to apply the emergency brake without seeking the approval of EU partners.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “We need to stop the pull of the migration system so that you don’t come here simply to get in-work benefits or have an automatic right to social housing ahead of people who are already living and working here.”
He added: “We have got to find a way through this. It has not got to be a short-term solution … it can’t be something that is simply cobbled together for a few months or a year or two.”
Fallon acknowledged that achieving the binding and irreversible changes would not be “easy for our partners” but said they would have to be included eventually in a treaty.
He added: “Britain is deadly serious about reducing the pull, the attractiveness of our benefits system, so that we can start to reduce, rather than see migration increase.”
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, belittled the progress made by Cameron. “David Cameron came, saw, and got hammered. How many times can his little plans be rejected?” he said. “All he got as a result was a meaningless two sentences in a communique. He was told to come back in February when I suspect he will probably get a few minor concessions.”
The prime minister spoke about the negotiations at a hastily convened press conference late on Thursday night. He said: “We are attempting something very difficult, we are attempting something that has never been tried and that is to renegotiate out position inside this European Union at a time of our choosing with a mandate behind us in order to get a better deal for Britain and to hold that referendum.”
He added: “They [the British people] want to know that this is not an unstoppable EU. They want to know that this is not a single currency club. They want to know that this organisation is adding to competitiveness, and they want to know it is not creating unsustainable pressure on migration.”
On benefit curbs, Cameron said: “I haven’t put any other proposals on the table. The commission said they believe there are solutions. Not compromises, solutions. I am confident we can find solutions. The good news is that there is a pathway to an agreement. But the truth is it will be very hard work not just on welfare but on all the issues we put forward.”
