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Britain's Cameron gets tough on immigration

Speaking in a Staffordshire factory, he suggested restrictions on EU immigration to Britain.

By Ed Adamczyk
British Prime Minister David Cameron at the United Nations in September. UPI/John Angelillo
British Prime Minister David Cameron at the United Nations in September. UPI/John Angelillo | License Photo

STAFFORDSHIRE, England, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron positioned himself, in a speech Friday, as tough on immigration and willing to see Britain leave the European Union over it.

With a general election coming in May and the rise of the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP), Cameron used his speech at a Staffordshire factory to call for excluding EU migrant workers from social and welfare benefits for four years. He did not mention a quota on migrants, which would run afoul of EU regulations.

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He proposed that migrants must have a firm British job offer before they arrive, should leave after six months without a job and not receive unemployment benefits while in Britain.

Cameron has sought exemptions for Britain regarding EU migrants' freedom to settle in any of the 28 countries in the bloc. In 2013 he promised a renegotiation of Britain's membership and later a referendum within Britain on leaving the EU. In the 2010 elections he promised to reduce immigration to "tens of thousands" per year; net immigration into Britain in 2013 was 260,000, up from 182,000 the previous year.

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The splinter UKIP party now holds two seats in Britain's Parliament with its one-issue campaign, and Cameron's speech indicated a get-tough attitude toward immigration that could include walking away from EU membership after an in-or-out 2017 referendum.

"If I succeed, I will, as I have said, campaign to keep this country in a reformed EU. 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," Cameron said.

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