Prime Minister David Cameron is taken for a tour by boat builder and restorer John Watson during a visit to small businesses at Lots Ait Boatyard in Brentford, west London, yesterday.
London Evening Standard/London
David Cameron faced a growing threat to his flagship Immigration Bill yesterday as six heavyweight former Labour ministers joined nearly 100 Tory rebels in demanding concessions.
Former home secretary David Blunkett, former ministers Hazel Blears, Frank Field, Kate Hoey, Meg Hillier and Gisela Stuart signed a rebel Conservative amendment calling for tougher laws for the deportation of foreign terror suspects.
Yesterday morning, Cameron appealed to backbenchers not to derail the Bill, saying that he shared their “frustration” over European laws that have watered down UK controls.
He claimed that only a “reasonable level” of Romanians and Bulgarians had arrived since restrictions were lifted in the New Year, although Downing Street admitted there were no official figures to support his claim.
The prime minister warned that a revolt could put at risk “sensible” measures in the Bill to lower net migration, which he agreed was too high.
The terror amendment, tabled by Esher MP Dominic Raab, calls for the government to give itself powers in exceptionally serious cases to override judges and deport people deemed a danger to the public who are claiming the right to stay on family grounds.
Raab told the Standard: “There is a strong cross-party groundswell in favour of cutting the spurious human rights claims made by jailed foreign criminals against deportation orders. It is a focused, practical, change and I hope the government takes it up.”
In a separate rebellion, 75 Conservatives are backing an amendment by Amber Valley MP Nigel Mills that calls for new restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians.
Cameron said that was not possible under EU law.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I completely understand and in many ways share the frustrations of colleagues who would like us to go further.”
Ruling out concessions, he added: “We have done the extent of what we can do within the rules that were agreed by the last government.”
On migration from the two countries this year, he said: “So far, there looks to be a reasonable level of migration. I hope we can make progress with the Bill because it does so many other good things.”
Cameron is promising tougher controls in future on new EU members, although none is expected to join for another decade. Eastern European leaders have said scare stories in Britain had stoked fears of a large influx of immigrant workers. Ministers have repeatedly refused to publish official estimates of the numbers expected.
Cameron countered Ukip criticism of his policies by saying that immigration control was “absolutely core” to his economic plan.
PM trumpets red tape cuts to woo business bosses
Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday told company owners that his government has exceeded its targets for cutting back over-zealous business regulations and will save firms millions of pounds per year. Cameron’s appeal for support from the business world in the run-up to the 2015 election comes at a time when the opposition Labour party is facing heavy business criticism for planning to raise income taxes and shake up the energy and banking industries. Speaking at the Federation of Small Business, Cameron said his government had beaten its target, set in late 2012, of finding 3,000 unnecessary regulations to cut or simplify, and had already implemented 800 changes. “We will be the first government in modern history to have reduced, rather than increased, domestic business regulation during our time in office,” Cameron said.