Top EU official slams UK government on immigration

The European Commission vice-president has accused the British government of stirring up baseless fears about immigration to distract people from the country’s real problems.

Viviane Reding pointed the finger at the British Prime Minister David Cameron and his government for whipping up scares over benefit tourism by European migrants, saying they want to distract British voters from the real subjects in the UK.

“This supposed invasion of foreigners coming to the UK and stealing the jobs and stealing the social security and the health money. The fact and figures, and we all know this, show it is simply not true,” the senior Brussels official said.

The EU commissioner also questioned the leadership of the British PM, saying his based-on-myths populism and Euroscepticism to win votes in the next year’s election are threatening the future of the British people.

“What is leadership if you just try populistic speech to gain votes? You are destroying the future of your people,” Reding said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Reding launched a campaign for a “true political union” as the “best weapon against the Eurosceptics”, saying members of the 28-nation-bloc need to build a “United States of Europe”.

Britain’s Conservative-led government, along with the UK Independence Party (UKIP), has used increasingly tough rhetoric about EU migrants, particularly from Bulgaria and Romania, in recent months to gain votes in 2015 general election.

This comes as according to Reding, the GDP of Britain rose by 3-4 percent as a result of the input of the working Europeans who come to the country.