Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson Welcomes Prime Minister’s Announcements On Immigration

Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson has welcomed the Prime Minister’s speech on immigration which mirrors his 10 Minute Rule Bill from 2012, the EU Free Movement Directive (Disapplication) Bill

The announcement is particularly poignant for Peterborough where in the last eight years, more than 34,000 National Insurance numbers have been issued to EU citizens.

Large scale concentrated immigration, such as that which Peterborough has seen, has put huge strains on the delivery of public services such as primary care, maternity services, housing, policing and schools but also embedded welfare dependency as many indigenous workers have been priced out of jobs by the new arrivals.  Peterborough is a concentration point for this.  In Stewart Jackson’s constituency of Peterborough 41% of primary school children have English as an additional language.  The city has seen strains put on maternity services and housing.

Stewart has continuously raised serious concerns about EU immigration and more recently the likely migration of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals to the UK after 2014.

The Prime Minister today announced that people from the EU will have to prove they are “genuinely seeking employment” to claim UK jobless benefits for more than 6 months. There will also be further restrictions on access to the NHS and to social housing.

Stewart Jackson said:

Not long ago it was very much frowned upon to talk about immigration and I think it is absolutely the right thing now that the Prime Minister is taking a strong lead on this issue. People are concerned that, certainly with EU migration, we don’t have the control over the sort of people we are having come to the UK.  We want people who are self sufficient, financially independent who will work hard. I think that is the right thing to do. We don’t want welfare benefit tourists.  We don’t want people who will put a further strain on our already under pressure public services.   So for those reasons I think the Prime Minister is right to offer strong leadership, put in place some strong measures, tough, robust but fair policies on immigration