Boris’s ‘Come to London’ call at odds with PM’s crackdown

Just as David Cameron delivers his tough speech on curbing immigration, Boris Johnson, on the other side of the world, is rolling out the red carpet for immigrants who want to invest in London. What is going on?

Cameron's speech - heavily leaked to the morning papers - proposes barring EU migrants from work-related benefits for four years and stopping them from claiming child benefit to send home to families abroad.

They will be denied job-seeker’s benefits and they will face deportation after six months if they have not found a job in the UK.

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These are tough demands which might find some support in Germany and France – Cameron is suggesting the new rules should apply Europe-wide, not just in the UK - because they stop short of seeking to end freedom of movement which EU traditionalists regard as sacrosanct.

Addressing the eurosceptics in his own party, Cameron says he is willing to contemplate Britain pulling out of the EU if he does not get what he wants when it comes to negotiating these measures in Brussels (assuming he remains in power after the May 2015 general election).

“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.”

Today’s speech – to be given to a Tory audience in the Midlands - is clearly intended to check the appeal of Ukip after their by-election victories over the Conservatives in Clacton and Rochester and Strood.

But he has stopped well short of Tory eurosceptic demands to impose quotas, caps or a points system for admitting migrants to Britain – apparently under pressure from Chancellor George Osborne who has been fighting behind the scenes, according to Tim Montgomerie in The Times, to keep Britain’s doors open to “entrepreneurial, hardworking and jobless young Europeans who come to Britain not for benefits but to escape that great creator of human misery, the Eurozone”.

Which brings us to Boris Johnson, who also wants the doors kept open to “the right sort of immigrants” (the Mole’s phrase, not the mayor’s) – not from the EU but from the rest of the world.

As Cameron was preparing for today’s speech, Johnson was in Singapore worrying about inward investment from abroad, and trying to persuade Asian businessmen that they – and their money - were always welcome.

Boasting of London’s attractions, he said: “It’s got a global cosmopolitan feel, it’s safe, crime has been coming down, it’s green… I could go on and on about why people invest there.”

BBC business correspondent Linda Yueh said Johnson was making his pitch after Singapore’s businessmen had got wind of the contents of the Prime Minister’s speech and were asking: "How can you promote global investment if there are curbs on migrants?"

Said Boris: “We are seeing real big streams of investment and confidence in London. Britain is the America of the European Union. It has got the most dynamic economy, the most business-friendly environment, it is where people can start up businesses most easily, where business tax rates are most encouraging.

“People want to go there and as the mayor of what I believe is the greatest city on earth, I welcome that. All we are saying is don’t come along if you think it’s going to be a free lunch because it’s not going to be a free lunch.”

Boris’s comments are all very well – but they will raise renewed questions at home about Cameron’s “no ifs, no buts” pledge at the last election to bring net migration – from anywhere - down below 100,000 before the 2015 election.

Latest UK immigration statistics released yesterday once again make a mockery of that pledge, showing net migration rose to 260,000 in the year to June – an increase of 78,000 on the previous year.

The figures also show that closing the door to EU “benefit tourists” will do little to bring the overall numbers down. As the Daily Telegraph reports, “Arrivals from European countries were up 45,000 to 228,000 year-on-year, while those from outside the EU were up 30,000 to 272,000.”

Ukippers can argue that Boris Johnson’s “Come to London” call to Asian businessmen shows the Conservatives’ immigration policy is at best contradictory and at worst a big lie.