Home Secretary Theresa May says free EU movement is for workers only

The principle of free movement within the EU should only apply to those with a job, Home Secretary Theresa May says.

Free movement originally meant “freedom to move to a job,” not to look for work or claim benefits, she wrote in the Sunday Times.

“We must take some big decisions, face down powerful interests and reinstate the original principle”, she added.

Mrs May also said this summer’s migrant crisis had been “exacerbated by the European system of no borders”.

Her comments come days after official statistics showed net migration to the UK is at an all-time high, reaching 330,000 in the year to March.

The figure – the difference between the number entering the country and those leaving – is more than three times higher than the government’s target, reports the BBC.

Mrs May said the figure was “far too high” and “simply unsustainable”.

The “biggest single factor” stopping the government achieving its aim of reducing net migration to the tens of thousands was net migration from the EU, she argued.