Watered down 'emergency brake' offer is a 'sick joke', says Conservative MP

Brussels' offer of a watered down 'emergency brake' on migrants is a "sick joke", a eurosceptic Conservative MP has said.



John Redwood, the MP for Wokingham, has dismissed the proposal as an "insult" and said it would not be acceptable to the majority of Conservative MPs.

Brussels is said to be offering the Prime Minister a deal allowing him to stop EU migrants claiming benefits in the UK for four years if European leaders give him permission.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "That proposal is an insult to the United Kingdom. It's not a serious offer. We need to take back control of our borders and we need to be able to control our own welfare system. That falls well short of that.

"It says that we have to beg in extreme circumstances for the permission of the rest of the EU to temporarily make payments we don't want to make. It's just simply a bad joke."

Nick Herbert, another Tory MP, said if the ‘emergency brake' was "tough and practical", it would address migrant benefits concern.

Mr Cameron had pledged that as part of his renegotiation with Brussels he would stop all EU migrants coming to the UK from claiming in-work benefits until they have lived in the UK for four years.

The new deal on the table, reported by Reuters, would be a significant watering down of Mr Cameron's original manifesto pledge and would be criticised by Conservative eurosceptics.

Mr Redwood said that he did not believe expect other Conservative MPs to be satisfied by the offer, he said: "I shouldn't think so, no. Because they will see, as I see, that it doesn't give the United Kingdom anything. Calling it an emergency brake is just a sick joke.

"Surely EU, if you really want to keep Britain in, paying huge sums of money into the EU that we don't get back, you have got to do better than offering us this feeble emergency brake that won't work."

He added: "It doesn't work because if we wish to be a self-governing democracy responding to the needs and wishes of our electors, parliament has to be able to decide who to let in and how many people to let in, not 27 other member states on the continent who are very likely to take the opposite view to the British people when it really matters."

Just give us the vote, then the EU can get stuffed.

Just give us the vote, then the EU can get stuffed.

I wouldn't bet on it. There will be a huge propaganda campaign between now and the referendum and it's extremely unlikely the "out" vote will win.

it's extremely unlikely the "out" vote will win.

I do think Merkel's recent stupidity with immigration is going to cause a ripple or two.

However, I think we'll keep on voting until we get it 'right', rather like Southern Ireland did with the Euro.

Even if we do vote OUT (and I'm definitely in that camp) actually getting out will take years, if not forever.

^^^YouGov is the same polling organisation which said that Ed Miliband would win the last general election!

^^^YouGov is the same polling organisation which said that Ed Miliband would win the last general election!

But surely 'lessons will have been learned'?