Senior ministers urged the then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to delay granting employment rights to eastern and central European workers when the EU expanded in 2004, newly-released files have revealed. In February that year, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw pointed out that Britain was alone amongst the bigger EU members in offering a “concession”. The concession meant people from Poland and other newly-joined EU countries would be able to work in Britain after 1 May. Almost all the other large states would not allow this for two years: only Italy was undecided. Smaller EU countries, aside from Ireland, had work permit schemes which would limit numbers.
Papers from the National Archives – which have been released now they are 20 years old – show Straw proposed a six-month delay for the UK. He said: “I believe we could be faced with a very difficult situation in early May”. He warned the UK could “be forced to revoke the concession in the least propitious of circumstances”. His letter was copied to other senior ministers, and the then-deputy prime minister John Prescott supported Straw.
Prescott wrote that he was “extremely concerned” about the potential impact on social housing. He was also worried that many workers would come to London and the South East, and unable to find decent housing would “resort to sharing overcrowded housing in poor conditions”.
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