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thomas davison

Up to 13,000 Romanians and Bulgarians will move to UK next year, officials finally admit (but Eric Pickles doesn't believe them)

Formula suggests 4,613 Bulgarians and 8,155 Romanians will head to UK
But Communities Secretary says he has 'no confidence' in the figures

By Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 17:47, 19 March 2013 | UPDATED: 18:43, 19 March 2013

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said he had no confidence in the figures, insisting no one knows how many migrants will flock to Britain

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said he had no confidence in the figures, insisting no one knows how many migrants will flock to Britain

Up to 13,000 Romanians and Bulgarians will move to Britain when immigration rules are relaxed, according to official calculations.

The figures were placed on the communities department website 18 months ago despite official denials that any estimates existed.

But Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said he had 'no confidence' whatsoever in the figures suggesting they could be an underestimate.

He bluntly dismissed them, claiming the Government actually had �no idea� about the possible influx when restrictions are lifted next year.

The Home Office has repeatedly said it has not produced forecasts and Downing Street has previously insisted it would not publish predictions.

But Mr Pickles said figures and calculations were put on his website in October 2011 and other documents would be published �in due course�.

�There are figures in there, there are calculations, even at the back there's a proper mathematical calculation to look at it,� he told a Parliamentary Press Gallery lunch.

He added: �This time, everyone is opening up at the same time. If you combine Romania and Bulgaria together they don't even meet the level of the Polish population.

�Bulgarians have a kind of a link with Spain and with France and no matter how many fancy calculations you can put down, no matter what assumptions you can make about the A2 as opposed to the A10, I don't know and that's what I said at the time.

�I know its a bloody mistake to tell the truth but...

�The truth is nobody really knows so all the Government can do is to, just to be careful about the pull factors that might range from the health service, through housing, through benefits within the law to try and ensure there isn't an extra attraction to come here.

�But already there are people working in Lincolnshire and our crops being brought in (by people) that come from Romania and Bulgaria and the truth is very few carrots would be picked without that help that is there.�
Ministers are drawing up a package of emergency measures to deter Romanian and Bulgarian migrants from flocking to Britain when limits are lifted next year

Ministers are drawing up a package of emergency measures to deter Romanian and Bulgarian migrants from flocking to Britain when limits are lifted next year

He added: �So there is no secret formula that is too horrible to bring out, there is no secret calculation that we are trying to hide from the world because, indeed the calculation has been on my website undisturbed for the best part of two years and there are other documents that we will be publishing in due course.�

The formula suggest 4,613 Bulgarians and 8,155 Romanians would head to the UK.

Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in 2007 but under �transitional arrangements� workers from the two countries were prevented from travelling to the UK.

Minister for Local Government Brandon Lewis said: �This analysis was produced by the last administration, and should be treated with extreme caution given how unreliable their statistics have been historically.

�This report, which has been on our website since October 2011, was covered up by a Labour Party that failed on immigration and then tried to bury the truth.�

These pigs we call politicians think we came in on the back of a banana boat, they are the fools trying to tell us porkies, it will not matter the more that come in the quicker we will get rid of this government, get out of the EU and dump the human rights laws.
These fools think the public will take anything but they wont take someone stealing there homes, jobs and anything else they can steal while getting paid to do it by our government.