LONDON
British Prime Minister David Cameron has presented his plans to ban migrants from the European Union from claiming in-work benefits for four years after arriving in Britain, as he launched a political fightback against the rival anti-immigration UK Independence Party.
Speaking at the JCB heavy plant factory in Staffordshire on Friday, Cameron said his plan to curb immigration from Europe would ban immigrants from receiving state benefits for a minimum of four years and need EU treaties to be changed.
He said: "On immigration, they (the British people) don't want limitless immigration and they don't want no immigration. They want controlled immigration. And they are right."
"...if an EU jobseeker has not found work within six months, they will be required to leave."
Under the proposals migrants would be barred from claiming benefits such as tax credits and housing benefit as well as entitlements to social housing.
Widespread criticism
His proposals which are to be included in his Conservative Party's manifesto for the general elections in Britain next year, are likely to concern many EU countries.
But he fell short of calling for a quota on the number of EU immigrants coming to the U.K, saying he believed in the principle of the free movement of people - an admission likely to be seen as a retreat from earlier plans which received widespread criticism among European states and Germany in particular.
However, he also signaled he was prepared to argue for the UK to leave the EU if other member states rejected his plans to cut benefits for migrants.
“If our concerns fall on deaf ears and we cannot put our relationship with the EU on a better footing, then of course I rule nothing out," he declared.
'New rules'
Cameron added that the widely debated concept of an "emergency brake", in which a country could impose a temporary ban on immigration, would not be effective since it would probably have to be imposed by the EU Commission.
For his facts on the number of EU migrants claiming tax credits in Britain, Cameron cited data published by the think-tank Open Europe, viewed as controversial by some experts.
Cameron disappointed right-wing Conservatives who have called for a "cap" on the numbers of EU migrants entering the U.K., saying he wanted to negotiate new rules on freedom of movement within the EU.
His speech came a day after new figures from the Office for National Statistics showed a dramatic leap in net annual migration to more than 250,000 people.
Public services slashed
The rise - one of the biggest on record in the U.K. – came as a blow to Cameron's vow to cut immigration from hundreds of thousands of people to tens of thousands by the 2015 general election.
Cameron's Conservative Party has been under pressure from the anti-EU and anti-immigration Ukip over the past year as public sentiment has hardened towards immigrants amid harsh "austerity measures" imposed by the government which have led to budgets for public services being slashed, retirement ages extended and salaries and wages restrained.
The conservatives have lost many votes to Ukip, according to opinion polls, and two Conservative MPs have defected to it.
Cameron has responded by taking a stronger line on the EU and immigration to address the growing concerns of his party members.
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