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DAVID CAMERON will hit a “legal brick wall” in his bid to deprive EU nationals of in-work benefits, TUC leader Frances O’Grady predicted yesterday.
Ms O’Grady said the Prime Minister’s plan to stop EU citizens accessing benefits until they have lived in Britain for four years would breach “discrimination, human rights and freedom of movement principles.”
She said: “What I think is worrying about this is the risk of discrimination on the basis of national origin and more generally a world view that suggests that treating one group of workers worse than another group is somehow going to help us in the big challenges that we face.”
Britain’s trade union chief made the comments as she went head to head with representatives of the CBI and City UK big-business lobbyists during a session of the Lords EU referendum Bill committee.
The panel was considering whether Britain’s renegotiation will lead to the creation of a two-speed Europe.
Chancellor George Osborne also met European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans yesterday in Brussels to discuss “how you can release the burden on business.”
Increased “competitiveness” was one of four red lines the PM set out in a letter to European Council president Donald Tusk.
Ms O’Grady said the absence of any direct reference workers’ rights in Mr Cameron’s letter gave them “some assurances.”
But she told peers: “There’s an awful lot of detail missing.
“Some phrases like competitiveness can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, and not all of them good from our perspective.”
The government was also criticised yesterday for refusing to give 16- and 17-year-olds a vote in the EU referendum.
The Lords had amended the government’s referendum Bill to legislate for a lower voting age but it was blocked in the Commons by 303 votes to 253.
Cabinet Office minister John Penrose said Labour was only supporting the move to gain some “tawdry tactical party-political advantage.”
But Labour shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden said ministers were motivated by their “wider campaign to neuter the House of Lords” following their humiliating defeat over tax credit cuts.
