Migrant restriction 'premature' - MEP

Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies says the measures are a knee jerk reaction to a non-existent problem. He claims the numbers of people coming to Britain to look for work will be small, and is calling on Home Secretary David Blunkett to hold the powers in reserve.

Although all EU citizens have the right to live, work and claim benefits in any member country, existing members are allowed to impose restrictions for up to seven years on the right of residents in the majority of the new member states to work and claim benefits.

Conservatives have claimed that huge numbers of people from the accession countries will be tempted by jobs with higher wages and more generous benefits than in the existing EU countries.

But Mr Davies has dismissed such fears, saying that people in Poland, Hungary and other nations did not vote to join the European Union so that they could leave their countries, their families and friends, but to bring them into the modern world and make them more prosperous.

He said: "The fear of migration to Britain will vastly outweigh the reality. The few movements that do take place will be confined almost entirely to London and the South East where there is a huge demand for cheap labour.

"Instead of surrendering to the hysterical nonsense whipped up by some politicians we should be embarrassed by the fact that Britain ruthlessly exploits poorer countries by enticing their trained medical staff to come and work in our hospitals.

"We should remember also that twenty years ago there were fears that Spanish workers would flood into Britain to look for better paid jobs. Instead, hundreds of thousands of Brits flooded into Spain, buying up property in Spain and entirely changing the character of parts of the country."

Cyprus and Malta plus the former communist states of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia will join the EU on May 1.