Cameron survives humbling EU revolt in parliament

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron suffered an embarrassing blow in parliament on Wednesday when a third of his Conservative MPs voted against him in protest at his stance on Britain's membership of the European Union.

Though the revolt was defeated, the rebellion could undermine Cameron's leadership, as scores of his own party's MPs took the highly unusual step of voting to criticise his government's legislative plans, a week after they were first put before parliament.

The rebels are angry that the government's policy proposals did not include steps to make Cameron's promise of a referendum on Britain's EU membership legally binding.

The party turmoil has fuelled talk of Britain sliding towards the EU exit and has stirred memories of Conservative infighting that contributed to the downfall of former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

While the vote was non-binding, the scale of the mutiny, less than two years before the next parliamentary election, will embolden eurosceptics pushing him to take a harder line on Europe.

Just before the vote, Cameron played down its significance, saying he was "extremely relaxed" about what was a free vote for Conservative MPs, except ministers.

"It's a free vote, and as I've said I'm relaxed about that, so I don't think people can read in anything to the scale of that free vote," he told reporters in New York, where he is on an official trip.

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman said earlier that Cameron was "becoming a laughing stock".

A total of 130 MPs voted against the government. More than 100 of them were expected to be confirmed as Conservatives when the full voting figures are released later. The centre-right party has 305 members of parliament.

CAMERON'S DILEMMA

Cameron had hoped to end party squabbling over Europe in January when he promised to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU and hold a referendum on its membership before the end of 2017, provided he wins the next general election in 2015.

But Conservative eurosceptics soon began pushing for a law before 2015 to guarantee the referendum would take place. Some even called for an earlier referendum.

Cameron's offer on Tuesday of draft legislation that would make his pledge legally binding received a lukewarm reception. Rebels say it will be blocked by the Conservatives' coalition partner, the pro-EU Lib Dems.

Wednesday's parliamentary vote underscored how Cameron is boxed in over Europe.

Keen to avoid a rift with the Lib Dems, he must also avoid alienating Conservative eurosceptics who see the EU as an over-mighty "superstate" that threatens Britain's sovereignty.

The success of the anti-EU UK Independence Party in local elections this month only intensified Conservative pressure for Cameron to go further on Europe. A YouGov poll in April put support for withdrawal at 43 percent, with 35 percent wanting to stay in.

(Additional reporting by William James in London and Andrew Osborn in New York; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Will Waterman)

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Britain's Cameron 'open to ideas' for RBS stake disposal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron is "open to all ideas" for returning Royal Bank of Scotland to private ownership but its finances must improve first, he told reporters on the last day of a three-day visit to the United States.

Policy Exchange, the influential centre-right political think-tank, has urged the government to reprivatise both RBS and state-backed rival Lloyds Banking Group through a mass share distribution to the public.

Shares in Lloyds are nearing the price which the government regards as its break-even level, making it more likely it would simply dispose of its 39 percent stake on the open market.

But a public offer looks more of an option for the 81-percent the Treasury holds of RBS, giving it back to taxpayers who would take on remaining risk associated with the bank but profit from any future improvement in its situation.

"In terms of returning RBS to the private sector, involving people in owning this bank in a genuine way, I'm open to all ideas and proposals. But it seems to me the primary question is of getting this bank back into good health," Cameron said.

Britain pumped 45.5 billion pounds into RBS and 20.5 billion pounds into Lloyds to keep them afloat during the 2008 financial crisis. Since then, both banks have undertaken massive restructurings under new management and, bowing to pressure from MPs, focused on lending to UK households and businesses.

RBS has shed assets worth around 900 billion pounds ($1.4 trillion) from its bloated balance sheet. There are still hurdles to be overcome, however. The bank said on Tuesday it would need another 18 months to strengthen its capital position enough to satisfy regulators.

"There are connections between the ownership and the health but I think step one is continue the path to health and step two is to think about changing its ownership," Cameron said.

Shares in Lloyds closed on Wednesday at a two-year high of 59.4 pence, just below the 61 pence level which the government regards as its break-even. Shares in RBS closed at 307 pence, meaning taxpayers are sitting on a loss of 17.5 billion pounds.

($1 = 0.6568 British pounds)

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn, writing by Matt Scuffham, editing by Patrick Graham)

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Cameron faces leadership questions over Europe

By Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron faced questions about his leadership on Tuesday after he bowed to pressure from inside the ruling Conservative Party to bring forward draft legislation enforcing a referendum on Britain's European Union membership.

Just hours after U.S. President Barack Obama cautioned against rushing towards the EU exit, Cameron was forced by a rebellion in his party into promising a bill that would pave the way for an in-out vote on Europe.

Cameron denied the move was a desperate measure to placate his increasingly restive and eurosceptic party, where many see the EU as an oppressive and wasteful "superstate" that threatens Britain's sovereignty.

"I think when all the dust has settled people will be able to see the substance of the issue," he said.

"That is that one party, the Conservatives, has a clear agenda: renegotiate, change Europe, have a referendum on it - the others parties don't take that approach," he told Sky news.

On the contrary, he said, he had shown leadership on the issue.

"The whole reason that we are now having this debate is because of the act of leadership I gave," he told ITV News, referring to an earlier promise to hold a referendum.

Yet the more ground Cameron concedes to his eurosceptic MPs, the more they want, deepening the 25-year battle in his party over Europe and undermining his own chances of leading it to victory in a general election set for 2015.

Divisions over Europe helped bring down the last two Conservative prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and many politicians compared Cameron's position to that of Major whose premiership was riven by rows over Europe.

"There is no way that he (Cameron) can give in any further because he's undermining his own position," said Sheila Gunn, who served as spokeswoman to Major.

RISKY PATH

Conservative MPs who back the new bill deny the move undermines Cameron. For them, it is a way of showing a sceptical public that the Conservatives really do want a referendum on Britain's EU membership, but are being held back.

The party's Liberal Democrat partners in coalition government are pro-Europe and oppose a referendum, while the opposition Labour party says it does not support a vote on the EU in 2017, the date proposed by Cameron earlier this year.

"We've set out our position and published this bill to give the British people an in-out referendum on Europe ... Now it's vital to hear whether Labour and the other parties are actually prepared to trust the British public," Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps said in a statement.

Cameron's advisers hope the draft bill on an EU vote will end internal bickering. A Downing Street spokesman insisted Cameron was still in charge.

History shows Cameron is treading a risky path.

The three eurosceptic Conservative Party leaders who followed Major failed to get into power, and Cameron's capitulation over the new EU referendum bill has created the impression he is not in control of his own party.

"David Cameron's weakness has turned a European issue into a leadership issue," Labour foreign affairs spokesman Douglas Alexander said.

In January, Cameron promised to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership and then hold a referendum by the end of 2017 in a speech meant to draw a line under the issue.

But some MPs had called for further concessions and media reports said Cameron's leadership could be challenged.

Cameron's potential rivals include London Mayor Boris Johnson and Education Secretary Michael Gove.

"RED LINE"

Cameron believes his decision to publish the draft bill will silence his eurosceptic MPs until the next election.

"This is our red line," one senior Conservative source said of the bill. "We're not going to give them any more ground."

Despite his latest concession, up to 100 eurosceptic Conservative members of parliament are still expected to criticise the government's legislative plans on Wednesday because they didn't include a bill promising a vote on EU membership.

Since coming to power in a coalition government three years ago, the Conservatives have been rattled by the popularity of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which campaigns for Britain's withdrawal from the EU and tighter immigration laws.

A Guardian/ICM poll showed that UKIP's support had surged to a record high of 18 percent, while support for Britain's traditional parties had fallen by 4 percentage points each.

UKIP took a quarter of the vote in local elections this month. Unless Cameron can convince his party he can win the next election he is likely to face more challenges to his leadership.

"With the story changing every day, it's very reminiscent of the old John Major days where, really, the government appears to be being blown around by events," said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

The Guardian poll put Labour on 34 percent, the Conservatives on 28 percent and the Lib Dems on 11 percent.

UKIP's poll rating has climbed steadily since Cameron set out his EU strategy in January.

Cameron's bid to renegotiate the terms of Britain's membership has worried the United States, which has warned London that it would lose influence in the world if it did leave the world's biggest economic bloc.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas, William James, Costas Pitas and William Schomberg; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Cameron to publish EU vote bill in bid to defuse party revolt

By Andrew Osborn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Conservatives will unveil a draft bill on Tuesday that could make Prime Minister David Cameron's promise of a referendum on Britain's European Union membership legally binding.

In a political gamble aimed at shoring up Cameron's leadership, the bill would pave the way for an in-out vote by the end of 2017 that will decide Britain's geopolitical and economic destiny for decades ahead.

However, the Conservatives are part of a two-party coalition and do not have a parliamentary majority, so the bill's chances of success aren't guaranteed. Rebels from other parties would need to support it too for it to become law.

Cameron's highly unusual decision to sanction the draft bill was announced in the United States on Monday evening and comes less than four months after he pledged to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership and then hold an in-out vote before the end of 2017.

Many Conservatives say they want to be part of the EU's single market but want to ditch many other aspects of a relationship they fear is becoming increasingly anti-democratic and bureaucratic.

Cameron's referendum promise in January failed to satisfy Conservative critics who have been pressing him to bring forward the vote to before the next national election in 2015 or to pass a law committing the party to holding a vote by the end of 2017.

He decided to partially accede to their demands to try to end a public debate that has made his party look divided, threatening his own re-election chances.

"The Conservative Party will publish a draft bill to legislate for an in-out referendum by the end of 2017," a senior Conservative source told reporters in Washington after Cameron met U.S. President Barack Obama On Monday.

"We will examine all opportunities to bring the bill before parliament, including a private member's bill," the source said.

Conservatives believe the demarche should draw a line under weeks of internal bickering that has damaged the party's image while piling pressure on the opposition Labor party to explain why it doesn't favor such a referendum.

It will be hard for the Conservatives to push any referendum bill through parliament because it will almost certainly be opposed by their pro-EU coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, as well as by Labor.

Despite the move up to 100 Eurosceptic Conservative members of parliament are still expected to back an amendment this week criticizing legislative plans unveiled by the government because they did not include such a bill.

Conservative lawmaker John Baron, one of the two figures behind the amendment, said Cameron's promise of a draft bill would not persuade him to back down.

"I am sticking by what I am saying. They know that this option could very well fail," he told Reuters. "A far better approach would be to have the courage to support our amendment on Wednesday."

Cameron came to power in a coalition government three years ago after telling his party in 2006 to "stop banging on about Europe", an issue that has divided the Conservatives for decades and helped bring down two of his predecessors, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

But Conservatives in parliament have been rattled by the growing popularity of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which campaigns for Britain's withdrawal from the EU and tighter immigration laws. A Guardian/ICM poll showed on Tuesday that UKIP's support had surged to a record high of 18 percent.

UKIP's poll rating has climbed steadily since Cameron's EU referendum pledge in January, with the party taking a quarter of the vote in local elections earlier this month.

Labor, which has a 10-point lead over the Conservatives, said Cameron had "lost control of the agenda and lost control of his party" at a time when he should be working on reviving Britain's economy.

"This seems to be just the latest panicked response from the prime minister who is now following, rather than leading his backbenchers," Labor foreign affairs spokesman Douglas Alexander said in a statement.

(Writing by Andrew Osborn and Peter Griffiths, Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

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Cameron on U.S. trip to learn Boston lessons, discuss Syria

By Andrew Osborn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron will visit Boston on Monday to learn more about the bombings there after a meeting with President Barack Obama aimed at helping broker a Syrian peace deal and spurring talks on an EU-U.S. trade pact.

Making his first trip to the United States since Obama won a second term, Cameron will receive a detailed briefing from the FBI on the Boston bombings to see if Britain can learn lessons from how the United States responded. He is also expected to express his condolences to the victims of the attack.

Global diplomacy will feature prominently during his trip and the British leader is hoping the U.S. president will help him prepare the ground for next month's G8 summit in Northern Ireland and that the two - along with Russia - can help find a political settlement for Syria.

Cameron's three day visit will begin at the White House in Washington and finish in New York where he is expected to take part in U.N. talks on agreeing new global development goals.

His visit underlines the continued importance of the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States, even as cuts to Britain's defense budget and talk of Britain leaving the European Union are causing anxiety among senior U.S. policymakers who fear their close ally is growing weaker.

Cameron phoned Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss Syria before the trip. A spokesman from Cameron's office said he had talked about "how the UK, Russia and America could work together to successfully achieve the plan of a peace conference by the end of the month".

Cameron was also keen to discuss with Obama how Britain and America could work together to establish a stronger and more credible opposition inside Syria, the spokesman added.

EU-U.S. TRADE DEAL

But it is the prospect of an EU-U.S. trade deal and the lucrative dividends that such an agreement could bring both countries that Cameron was keen to stress before the trip even as one of his own government ministers said he thought Britain should leave the EU.

In particular, he is hoping Obama will help him clinch an agreement to start talks on such a trade deal in the margins of the G8 summit, an achievement he believes would give the global economy a shot in the arm at a time when his own country and many others are seeing only a fragile economic recovery.

"Britain and America can once again lead the way in meeting the greatest challenge of our time: securing the growth and stability on which the prosperity of the whole world depends," Cameron wrote in an article for the Wall Street Journal.

He said an EU-U.S. trade deal would boost the British economy by 10 billion pounds a year and the U.S. economy by 63 billion pounds annually.

"When times are tough, some want to put the barriers up, to look inwards, and to protect themselves from the world. But Britain and America stand for a better way," he wrote in the same article.

Cameron is hoping Obama will also help him turn high-flown rhetoric on cracking down on global tax evasion into a meaningful international agreement at the G8 summit.

"We must fight the scourge of tax evasion by promoting a new global standard for automatic information exchange between tax authorities," Cameron said.

Using some of his strongest language on the subject yet, he added: "We must lift the veil of secrecy that too often lets corrupt corporations and officials in some countries run rings around the law."

A global standard for resource-extracting companies that obliged them to report all payments to governments across the world would be also be an important step forward, he said.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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UKIP pressures PM Cameron in local vote

By Andrew Osborn

ASHFORD, England (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Conservatives are set to lose hundreds of seats in local polls on Thursday that will go some way to measuring the threat the surging anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) poses to their hopes of re-election in 2015.

Even in towns like Ashford in southeast England, which has returned a Conservative MP to the national parliament at every election since 1945, surveys suggest UKIP could win up to one fifth of the votes.

History shows Britons often use mid-term council elections to punish their favoured party for perceived failings by temporarily forsaking it only to return when it really counts.

But polling data shows UKIP, which wants to radically tighten immigration rules into Britain, is luring Prime Minister David Cameron's traditional supporters away.

That trend risks splitting the centre-right vote in 2015, making Cameron's task of beating the main opposition Labour party even harder.

The Conservatives, the senior partner in a two-party national coalition, trail Labour by up to 10 percentage points in opinion polls, but they are banking on an economic rebound by 2015 to lift Britain from its torpor.

If a national election were held today, Labour would win.

"I've been a Conservative all my life but I'm going to vote for UKIP," said Bill Newton, 76, a retired businessman, out shopping in Ashford's futuristic tented mall. "I want the Conservatives to get the message that they need to change."

More than 2,000 council seats in largely English rural counties and in one Welsh area are up for grabs on Thursday. One national parliamentary seat is also being contested in northern England where UKIP hopes to come second to Labour.

Heavy Conservative losses could renew pressure on Cameron's leadership ahead of a national election in 2015, and the vote is being seen as one of the last chances to test the political climate before that ballot.

UKIP WANTS END TO "OPEN DOOR" IMMIGRATION

Campaigning on a promise to take Britain out of the EU and to end "open-door" immigration, UKIP's policies appeal to many traditional Conservatives who feel Cameron has taken their own party in too liberal a direction.

But though UKIP has surged in the polls, it has no MPs in the national parliament and Thursday's election will indicate if its swelling poll support translates into votes. Full results of the council ballots will not be known until Friday.

"One local poll put our support at 60 percent," Norman Taylor, the UKIP candidate for Ashford Central, told Reuters in an interview. "I don't believe we'll get that, but we should get around 20 percent. From now on we're going to be a dominant force in politics."

The main reason for UKIP's growing popularity is its immigration policy, he said.

"Say NO to mass immigration," proclaim colourful leaflets being handed out to voters on the streets of Ashford.

Taylor, 74, said Ashford and its periphery, which has a population of about 80,000 and is close to the tunnel that links Britain to France, had been "particularly hard hit" by immigration.

An area the former government designated a growth zone, he said it had seen an influx of British migrant workers moving from London for lower housing costs coupled with the arrival of foreign immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe.

"Everything here is crumbling in every way," he said. "Public services can't cope. They let everyone in and only then did they start to think about the infrastructure."

Taylor said his views and those of his party were not racist but reflected the concerns of many local blue collar workers.

"I've got nothing against them (immigrants). The only problem is we can't handle the numbers."

The background of some of the party's candidates has stirred controversy, however. Several have been suspended after it emerged they had once belonged to far-right groups and a photograph of one candidate making what looks like a Nazi salute has been plastered on newspaper front pages.

Nigel Farage, the party's leader, has said UKIP was unable to vet all of its some 1,700 candidates properly, saying a few undesirables had got through.

On Ashford's main shopping street there are mixed feelings about UKIP, especially from the town's large Nepali diaspora.

A British army battalion of Gurkha soldiers is based nearby and many ex-soldiers have settled in Ashford.

One retired Gurkha who declined to be named said he felt uneasy. "I'm not convinced by UKIP," he said, saying he feared its policies could stoke hostility towards his own community.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Anti-EU party pressures Britain's PM Cameron in local vote

By Andrew Osborn

ASHFORD, England (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Conservatives are set to lose hundreds of seats in local polls on Thursday that will go some way to measuring the threat the surging anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) poses to their hopes of re-election in 2015.

Even in towns like Ashford in southeast England, which has returned a Conservative MP to the national parliament at every election since 1945, surveys suggest UKIP could win up to one fifth of the votes.

History shows Britons often use mid-term council elections to punish their favored party for perceived failings by temporarily forsaking it only to return when it really counts.

But polling data shows UKIP, which wants to radically tighten immigration rules into Britain, is luring Prime Minister David Cameron's traditional supporters away.

That trend risks splitting the center-right vote in 2015, making Cameron's task of beating the main opposition Labour party even harder.

The Conservatives, the senior partner in a two-party national coalition, trail Labour by up to 10 percentage points in opinion polls, but they are banking on an economic rebound by 2015 to lift Britain from its torpor.

If a national election were held today, Labour would win.

"I've been a Conservative all my life but I'm going to vote for UKIP," said Bill Newton, 76, a retired businessman, out shopping in Ashford's futuristic tented mall. "I want the Conservatives to get the message that they need to change."

More than 2,000 council seats in largely English rural counties and in one Welsh area are up for grabs on Thursday. One national parliamentary seat is also being contested in northern England where UKIP hopes to come second to Labour.

Heavy Conservative losses could renew pressure on Cameron's leadership ahead of a national election in 2015, and the vote is being seen as one of the last chances to test the political climate before that ballot.

UKIP WANTS END TO "OPEN DOOR" IMMIGRATION

Campaigning on a promise to take Britain out of the EU and to end "open-door" immigration, UKIP's policies appeal to many traditional Conservatives who feel Cameron has taken their own party in too liberal a direction.

But though UKIP has surged in the polls, it has no MPs in the national parliament and Thursday's election will indicate if its swelling poll support translates into votes. Full results of the council ballots will not be known until Friday.

"One local poll put our support at 60 percent," Norman Taylor, the UKIP candidate for Ashford Central, told Reuters in an interview. "I don't believe we'll get that, but we should get around 20 percent. From now on we're going to be a dominant force in politics."

The main reason for UKIP's growing popularity is its immigration policy, he said.

"Say NO to mass immigration," proclaim colorful leaflets being handed out to voters on the streets of Ashford.

Taylor, 74, said Ashford and its periphery, which has a population of about 80,000 and is close to the tunnel that links Britain to France, had been "particularly hard hit" by immigration.

An area the former government designated a growth zone, he said it had seen an influx of British migrant workers moving from London for lower housing costs coupled with the arrival of foreign immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe.

"Everything here is crumbling in every way," he said. "Public services can't cope. They let everyone in and only then did they start to think about the infrastructure."

Taylor said his views and those of his party were not racist but reflected the concerns of many local blue collar workers.

"I've got nothing against them (immigrants). The only problem is we can't handle the numbers."

The background of some of the party's candidates has stirred controversy, however. Several have been suspended after it emerged they had once belonged to far-right groups and a photograph of one candidate making what looks like a Nazi salute has been plastered on newspaper front pages.

Nigel Farage, the party's leader, has said UKIP was unable to vet all of its some 1,700 candidates properly, saying a few undesirables had got through.

On Ashford's main shopping street there are mixed feelings about UKIP, especially from the town's large Nepali diaspora.

A British army battalion of Gurkha soldiers is based nearby and many ex-soldiers have settled in Ashford.

One retired Gurkha who declined to be named said he felt uneasy. "I'm not convinced by UKIP," he said, saying he feared its policies could stoke hostility towards his own community.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

View the original article here

UKIP pressures Cameron in local vote

By Andrew Osborn

ASHFORD, England (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Conservatives are set to lose hundreds of seats in local polls on Thursday that will go some way to measuring the threat the surging anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) poses to their hopes of re-election in 2015.

Even in towns like Ashford in southeast England, which has returned a Conservative MP to the national parliament at every election since 1945, surveys suggest UKIP could win up to one fifth of the votes.

History shows Britons often use mid-term council elections to punish their favoured party for perceived failings by temporarily forsaking it only to return when it really counts.

But polling data shows UKIP, which wants to radically tighten immigration rules into Britain, is luring Prime Minister David Cameron's traditional supporters away.

That trend risks splitting the centre-right vote in 2015, making Cameron's task of beating the main opposition Labour party even harder.

The Conservatives, the senior partner in a two-party national coalition, trail Labour by up to 10 percentage points in opinion polls, but they are banking on an economic rebound by 2015 to lift Britain from its torpor.

If a national election were held today, Labour would win.

"I've been a Conservative all my life but I'm going to vote for UKIP," said Bill Newton, 76, a retired businessman, out shopping in Ashford's futuristic tented mall. "I want the Conservatives to get the message that they need to change."

More than 2,000 council seats in largely English rural counties and in one Welsh area are up for grabs on Thursday. One national parliamentary seat is also being contested in northern England where UKIP hopes to come second to Labour.

Heavy Conservative losses could renew pressure on Cameron's leadership ahead of a national election in 2015, and the vote is being seen as one of the last chances to test the political climate before that ballot.

UKIP WANTS END TO "OPEN DOOR" IMMIGRATION

Campaigning on a promise to take Britain out of the EU and to end "open-door" immigration, UKIP's policies appeal to many traditional Conservatives who feel Cameron has taken their own party in too liberal a direction.

But though UKIP has surged in the polls, it has no MPs in the national parliament and Thursday's election will indicate if its swelling poll support translates into votes. Full results of the council ballots will not be known until Friday.

"One local poll put our support at 60 percent," Norman Taylor, the UKIP candidate for Ashford Central, told Reuters in an interview. "I don't believe we'll get that, but we should get around 20 percent. From now on we're going to be a dominant force in politics."

The main reason for UKIP's growing popularity is its immigration policy, he said.

"Say NO to mass immigration," proclaim colourful leaflets being handed out to voters on the streets of Ashford.

Taylor, 74, said Ashford and its periphery, which has a population of about 80,000 and is close to the tunnel that links Britain to France, had been "particularly hard hit" by immigration.

An area the former government designated a growth zone, he said it had seen an influx of British migrant workers moving from London for lower housing costs coupled with the arrival of foreign immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe.

"Everything here is crumbling in every way," he said. "Public services can't cope. They let everyone in and only then did they start to think about the infrastructure."

Taylor said his views and those of his party were not racist but reflected the concerns of many local blue collar workers.

"I've got nothing against them (immigrants). The only problem is we can't handle the numbers."

The background of some of the party's candidates has stirred controversy, however. Several have been suspended after it emerged they had once belonged to far-right groups and a photograph of one candidate making what looks like a Nazi salute has been plastered on newspaper front pages.

Nigel Farage, the party's leader, has said UKIP was unable to vet all of its some 1,700 candidates properly, saying a few undesirables had got through.

On Ashford's main shopping street there are mixed feelings about UKIP, especially from the town's large Nepali diaspora.

A British army battalion of Gurkha soldiers is based nearby and many ex-soldiers have settled in Ashford.

One retired Gurkha who declined to be named said he felt uneasy. "I'm not convinced by UKIP," he said, saying he feared its policies could stoke hostility towards his own community.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

View the original article here

Cameron to meet EU leaders to push reform plan

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron hopes to overcome opposition to his plan to claw back power from Brussels when he meets the leaders of Germany, France and Spain this week for talks on Britain's future in the European Union.

Cameron infuriated European allies in January when he said he would try to renegotiate terms of Britain's EU membership and ask voters in a referendum if they wanted to stay in the bloc.

France and Germany accused him of treating the EU like an "a la carte menu" from which he could pick powers. The opposition Labour Party said Britain risked sleepwalking towards EU exit.

Facing hostility to his policy across the continent, Cameron faces an uphill battle when he meets Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid on Monday. He flies to Paris later that day to meet French President Francois Hollande before going to Germany on Friday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Cameron will argue the euro zone crisis means it is inevitable that the EU will undergo big changes and reform its treaties, allowing Britain to forge a new role.

"This is not about cherry-picking, but to argue as some do that you can't have a flexible Europe is wrong," he said in a statement. "We can have a flexible Europe where we don't all have to do the same things in the same way at the same time."

Cameron will press the case for an EU in which countries have different roles. He will point to the fact that not all members, including Britain, signed up to the euro currency. London also stayed out of the border-free Schengen zone.

'RIPE FOR REFORM'

Cameron must come from behind in the polls, win re-election in 2015 and persuade EU leaders to allow him to reclaim powers from Brussels before British voters would have their say in a referendum on Europe.

The scale of his task was made clear in January when European politicians denounced his setpiece speech on Europe as unrealistic and divisive.

Seeking to take the initiative, Cameron will frame his case for reform as part of a wider appeal for the EU to become leaner and more competitive.

He will seek to win support in Europe with a call to reduce the bloc's spending and red tape.

"This organisation is ripe for reform," he said. "We need a Europe that is more open, that is more competitive, that is more flexible."

Cameron faces a dilemma over Europe. He believes Britain is stronger inside the bloc. However vocal anti-EU parliamentarians in his Conservative Party, who see Brussels as a threat to British sovereignty, want him to take a tougher line with the EU or leave altogether.

Pressure on Cameron over Europe has grown because the UK Independence Party, which wants Britain to exit the EU, has poached voters from his Conservatives. Disagreement over Europe plagued the last two Conservative governments under former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

(Editing by Jason Webb)

View the original article here

Britain's Cameron to meet EU leaders to push reform plan

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron hopes to overcome opposition to his plan to claw back power from Brussels when he meets the leaders of Germany, France and Spain this week for talks on Britain's future in the European Union.

Cameron infuriated European allies in January when he said he would try to renegotiate terms of Britain's EU membership and ask voters in a referendum if they wanted to stay in the bloc.

France and Germany accused him of treating the EU like an "a la carte menu" from which he could pick powers. The opposition Labour Party said Britain risked sleepwalking towards EU exit.

Facing hostility to his policy across the continent, Cameron faces an uphill battle when he meets Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid on Monday. He flies to Paris later that day to meet French President Francois Hollande before going to Germany on Friday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Cameron will argue the euro zone crisis means it is inevitable that the EU will undergo big changes and reform its treaties, allowing Britain to forge a new role.

"This is not about cherry-picking, but to argue as some do that you can't have a flexible Europe is wrong," he said in a statement. "We can have a flexible Europe where we don't all have to do the same things in the same way at the same time."

Cameron will press the case for an EU in which countries have different roles. He will point to the fact that not all members, including Britain, signed up to the euro currency. London also stayed out of the border-free Schengen zone.

'RIPE FOR REFORM'

Cameron must come from behind in the polls, win re-election in 2015 and persuade EU leaders to allow him to reclaim powers from Brussels before British voters would have their say in a referendum on Europe.

The scale of his task was made clear in January when European politicians denounced his setpiece speech on Europe as unrealistic and divisive.

Seeking to take the initiative, Cameron will frame his case for reform as part of a wider appeal for the EU to become leaner and more competitive.

He will seek to win support in Europe with a call to reduce the bloc's spending and red tape.

"This organisation is ripe for reform," he said. "We need a Europe that is more open, that is more competitive, that is more flexible."

Cameron faces a dilemma over Europe. He believes Britain is stronger inside the bloc. However vocal anti-EU parliamentarians in his Conservative Party, who see Brussels as a threat to British sovereignty, want him to take a tougher line with the EU or leave altogether.

Pressure on Cameron over Europe has grown because the UK Independence Party, which wants Britain to exit the EU, has poached voters from his Conservatives. Disagreement over Europe plagued the last two Conservative governments under former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

(Editing by Jason Webb)

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Britain's PM Cameron unveils sweeping immigration crackdown

By Andrew Osborn

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron will unveil a sweeping immigration crackdown on Monday aimed at discouraging migrants from Romania and Bulgaria from moving to Britain when EU restrictions on their right to travel and work there expire next year.

Under his plans, access to Britain's National Health Service will be curbed, new migrants will have to wait up to five years for social housing, fines for employers who hire illegal workers will be doubled, and landlords who let to illegal immigrants could face fines too.

The lifting of European Union freedom of movement restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians has triggered warnings in the right-leaning press of "hordes" of welfare-hungry migrants descending on Britain at a time when the economy is stagnant and public resources are being squeezed.

Cameron's initiative reflects a change in the political mainstream after years of politicians shying away from the issue. All three main parties now talk tough on immigration after polls showed it had become one of voters' main worries ahead of a 2015 election and a once derided anti-immigration party surged in the polls.

In a speech that may stir controversy in Romania and Bulgaria, Cameron will say he wants to stop Britain's welfare system being "a soft touch" for migrants, saying that access to core public services is something newcomers should earn rather than automatically receive.

"Net migration needs to come down radically from hundreds of thousands a year to just tens of thousands," he will say, outlining measures that will apply to other EU nationals too.

The UK Independence Party or UKIP, has thrived in the polls after campaigning against "open-door" immigration, humiliating Cameron's ruling Conservative party in a vote for a parliamentary seat three weeks ago.

Cameron is expected to say: "While I have always believed in the benefits of immigration I have also always believed that immigration has to be properly controlled.

"As I have long argued, under the last government this simply wasn't the case. Immigration was far too high and badly out of control."

"SOMETHING FOR NOTHING CULTURE"

He will announce new measures to make it more difficult for nationals from the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes Romania and Bulgaria, to claim welfare benefits after six months. They will take effect in early 2014.

He will also promise to close a loophole that allows some people who have no right to work in Britain to claim benefits and subject newcomers to a much harder test to see if they are eligible for income-related benefits.

"Ending the something for nothing culture needs to apply to immigration as well as welfare. We're going to give migrants from the EEA a very clear message. Just like British citizens, there is no absolute right to unemployment benefit," he will say.

Under the plans, newcomers would also have to wait for up to five years before they could join a waiting list for social housing, and face "stricter charging" to use the health service or be obliged to have private health insurance.

"We should be clear that what we have is a free National Health Service, not a free International Health Service," Cameron will say.

His initiative has already been criticized by David Walker, the Bishop of Dudley, who told The Observer newspaper that politicians were exaggerating the immigration problem and considering "disproportionate" measures.

Last Friday, Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democrat party, the junior member of Cameron's coalition, said Britain was considering obliging visitors from "high-risk" countries to hand over a returnable cash bond to deter them from overstaying their visas.

He also abandoned a promise to amnesty illegal immigrants after ten years.

Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP, said on Saturday that the unexpected success of his own party had shifted the debate on immigration.

"If UKIP had not taken on this immigration debate, the others would not be talking about it at all," he told his party conference.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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