Steve Barclay MP is calling on the Government to extend restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian nationals from coming to the UK until after an EU referendum.

Mr Barclay said: “The pace and scale of immigration has caused serious issues for our community in North East Cambridgeshire.

A national policy under Labour of massive immigration was not matched with the funds to meet it. The arrival of more migrants from Romania and Bulgaria after 1 January 2014 risks making this worse.”

“The last Labour Government put in place national funding formulas for public services like schools, health and police, which left shire counties like Cambridgeshire at the bottom of the funding league.

“Furthermore, they failed to provide additional funding to deal with the localised impact of high levels of immigration into areas like the Fens, placing an increased demand on services.

“Although Downing Street is proposing an extension to the period that EU migrants need to spend in the UK before they can tap into our welfare system, this does not go far enough.

“I am calling on the Government to extend restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian nationals from coming to the UK until after an EU referendum.”

He continued: “Parliament should assert its sovereignty on this issue. We need to extend the transitional arrangements until the UK has had an opportunity to renegotiate the current rules on freedom of movement, and put this to a referendum.”