Britain accused

IF the European Commission was actively trying to cultivate Euroscepticism in Britain, it could hardly be doing a better job.

Concern about EU migrants’ access to benefits is widely acknowledged as one of the key factors driving British voters into the welcoming arms of the UK Independence Party.

Yet, in defiance of David Cameron’s moves to prevent benefit abuse, Brussels now says it will take Britain to court over the right-to-reside test for EU migrants in this country, which the Commission says is a “discriminatory” requirement and a contravention of European rules on the free movement of people.

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The Government, meanwhile, insists that its restrictions are legal and so the stage seems set for a lengthy and expensive battle which can only strengthen the growing opinion among voters that the EU really is more trouble than it is worth and that Mr Cameron’s hope of returning powers to Britain through negotiation is a forlorn one.

But while the Commission’s move appears to pile even more pressure on Mr Cameron as he is caught between his Europhile Liberal Democrat coalition partners and his truculent Eurosceptic backbenchers, it also presents the Prime Minister with an opportunity.

An eloquent defence of Britain’s right to set its own laws and to make its own decisions on precisely which benefits non-UK citizens can receive would go a long way towards rallying both public and party behind him. The problem, as ever, is that it would widen the growing rift between the Tory and Lib Dem halves of the coalition.

But if Mr Cameron does not make a stand for Britain’s sovereign rights in this matter, he will only be playing into the hands of Ukip leader Nigel Farage who can relax in the knowledge that the Government and the Commission between them are doing his job for him.