Theresa May lashes out at ‘EU scroungers’
THERESA MAY cranked up the war on “benefits tourists” yesterday as she called for tough new sanctions to stop EU migrants coming to Britain to sponge off the state.
The Home Secretary demanded immediate action to end abuse of the EU’s free movement directive by people who come here with no intention of getting a job.
At a meeting of European home affairs ministers in Luxembourg she highlighted how gangs of beggars are setting up camps in London to launch raids on the unsuspecting public.
She is expected to outline a case in which Romanian fraudsters fleeced UK taxpayers out of £3million.
Mrs May is understood to have the backing of Germany.
She vowed: “We will not allow this country to be a soft touch, but it will take the joint efforts of all our EU partners to tackle it.”
She is expected to tell her counterparts of a “recurring problem” with EU nationals setting up camps to beg and steal from tourists.
Last year more than 70 per cent of individuals arrested for begging in the London borough or Westminster were EU citizens.