Britain may reconsider plan to curb EU migrants’ benefits

Britain is willing to consider alternative proposals to its key demand at this week's European Union summit, to curb EU migrants' access to welfare benefits, foreign secretary Philip Hammond has said.

The proposal, which Britain hopes will reduce the number of migrants from other EU countries moving to Britain, has been overwhelmingly rejected by other member states. But, arriving at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, Mr Hammond said none of Britain's EU partners had yet come up with an alternative to his government's proposal for a four-year waiting time for access to benefits.

"We have put that demand on the table and we have heard that a lot of our partners in Europe have concerns about it. So far we haven't heard any counter-proposals, we haven't heard any alternative suggestions that will deliver the same effect in a different way," he said.

“But we have made very clear if people have other ideas that will deliver on this very important agenda for British people, we’re absolutely prepared to listen to them and we’re prepared to enter into a dialogue about them, but at the moment the only proposition on the table is our four-year proposal.”

The Conservative government received a boost on Monday when the House of Lords voted against a proposal to allow 16 and 17 year-olds to vote in the referendum on Britain’s EU membership. The upper house had earlier voted in favour of the proposal, which could have delayed the referendum, making a vote in 2016 impossible.

Downing Street has sent out conflicting messages in recent days on its negotiating position at this week's meeting of EU leaders, who will discuss Britain's demands over dinner on Thursday evening. After briefing over the weekend to the effect that David Cameron was getting ready to back down on delaying welfare payments to EU migrants, Downing Street later said this was not true.

Mr Cameron’s spokeswoman on Monday said delaying welfare payments was only one of a number of British proposals for curbing immigration from other EU countries. They include stopping the payment of child benefit for children living outside Britain and obliging EU migrants coming to the UK to have a job.

Opt-out

The spokeswoman was dismissive of a suggestion by London mayor

Boris Johnson

that Mr Cameron should seek a solution similar to Denmark’s opt-out that allows them to prevent foreigners buying second homes in

Denmark

until they have lived in the country for five years. Writing in the

Daily Telegraph

, Mr Johnson said Britain should demand an opt-out from EU free movement rules, just as Denmark had been allowed to opt out of an element of the free movement of capital.

"It is not just that we are one of the biggest magnets for immigrants – we share that status with Germany. We are unlike any other EU country (especially Germany) in the current rate of population growth, which has been largely – though by no means entirely – driven by recent immigration," he wrote.

Mr Cameron’s spokeswoman said the prime minister supports the principle of free movement and she suggested that the Danish opt-out was an unsuitable model for Britain.