EU official dismisses movement reform call

Cecilia Malmstrom, EU commissioner for Home Affairs, said there was little support for renegotiation of any European treaties, including the rules governing free movement.

The Swedish former MEP went further and claimed no country in Europe has gained so much from the enlargement of the EU than the UK.

And Ms Malmstrom disregarded “growth in racist parties” – without specifying to which parties she had in mind – as a serious political threat.

Asked at Chatham House, in central London, about fears in the UK over abuse of freedom of movement, Ms Malmstrom said: “I tend to think this debate is very British. There are individuals in other countries, but overall, the sort of ‘social welfare tourism’ is very British. It’s not widespread in other countries.”

Ms Malmstrom claimed she had demanded “concrete” evidence of so-called benefit tourism in the UK – but had received nothing.

She added: “You have a generous benefit system but so do many other countries so I don’t know why this debate is so intense in the UK.

“But I’ve also failed to get any concrete evidence that there is a massive abuse of benefits. We’ve asked for that evidence but we’ve not received that evidence, that there’s a massive abuse of benefits.”

Asked about proposals previously discussed by the Prime Minister and Home Secretary Theresa May to tackle free movement abuse, such as capping numbers of immigrants from future EU members until GDP per capita had reached a certain level, Ms Malmstrom said: “Enlargement has been very good for Europe, especially for the UK, no country has gained so much from enlargement as you have.”