Michael Fallon 'rows back' claims of towns 'swamped' by migrants

David Cameron has reportedly "slapped down" defence secretary Michael Fallon's claims that UK towns are being "swamped" with migrants.

The cabinet minister was forced to backtrack after he said on Sunday that "towns do feel under siege" and urged action to cap the number of EU jobseekers allowed to enter the country to stop "towns and communities from being swamped by huge numbers of migrants".

According to The Times, Downing Street ordered Fallon to "row back" from the remarks. A government source said: "He accepts he should have chosen his words better. He should have said [towns were] 'under pressure'."

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In comments to Sky News on Sunday, Fallon became the first MP to publicly admit that the Prime Minister was considering introducing caps to immigration to the UK.

However, Wolfgang Schauble, the German finance minister, clarified Berlin's opposition to nations attempting to restrict freedom of movement around the UK.

Schauble told the Times: "The principle of the freedom of movement is one of the basic principles of European integration and it cannot be restricted. That would be incompatible with the European treaties."

He added: "There is not much room to manoeuvre. The basic rules of the EU are not up for negotiation." The idea of reintroducing border controls would be "unthinkable", he said.

Angela Merkel has also expressed her opposition to closing EU borders.

On Sunday Fallon told Sky News: "The Germans haven't seen our proposals yet... [They are] still being worked on at the moment to see what we can do to prevent whole towns and communities being swamped by huge numbers of migrants."

Both major parties have been criticised in the past for using the word "swamped", The Guardian says. In 1978, Margaret Thatcher said people feared being "swamped" by immigrants from the Commonwealth and Pakistan. In 2002, David Blunkett, the then Labour home secretary, said some schools were being "swamped" by asylum seekers' children.