Cameron was forced to 'retreat' over EU migrant plan

Polish leaders have warned they will block David Cameron’s bid to clamp down on EU migrants claiming benefits, unless the rules will apply to British citizens as well.

The Prime Minister wants to stop migrants from claiming benefits for the first four years after they arrive in Britain, and kick out anyone who fails to find work after six months.

But Polish minister Rafal Trzaskowski told BBC's Newsnight that he believes the plans would go against all existing laws, and warned Poland would vote against the change.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the government is going "with the grain" in Europe in its attempt to change migration rules for EU citizens within member states.

In an interview with Political Correspondent Libby Wiener, he said the UK had consulted with partners in the European Union, and hoped to reach agreement on treaty change.

Prime Minster David Cameron backtracked from a radical plan to cap directly the number of EU migrants entering Britain after an intervention, according to reports

And it was the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who warned him she would not tolerate such an incursion into the principle of the free movement of workers, according to the Guardian.

It said that the decision to step back from the harder stance in the PM's speech on immigration on Friday disappointed the Eurosceptic backbenchers, but pleased business leaders.

A leading Czech politician has criticised David Cameron's tough new plans to block EU migrants from claiming benefits for four years, by highlighting the contribution Czech citizens made to the British military during World War Two.

Tomas Prouza, the Czech State Secretary for European Affairs, tweeted a picture of a group Czech fighter pilots at rest in front of a Hurricane fighter during the Battle of Britain and asked if the men would get benefits, despite only working in the UK for less than four years.

The slightly-tongue-in-cheek comment serves as an example of the opposition Mr Cameron will face from other EU members should he continue with his plans to differentiate between British and member-state citizens.

During WW2, around 90 airmen from Czechoslovakia fought in the Royal Air Force from the height of the Battle of Britian, chiefly in No. 310 and No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadrons.

Martin Geissler: Poland's veto power is bad news for David Cameron

A senior figure in the Polish government has told ITV News that Poland would definitely block any UK treaty revisions that would discriminate between British and EU citizens.

Economist Jacek Rostowski, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, made the comments following David Cameron's speech laying out radical reforms to ban European migrants from claiming a range of benefits for their first four years in the UK.

Mr Rostowski told ITV News correspondent Martin Geissler that "of course" Poland would veto the move - which requires the co-operation of every EU country.

Nick Clegg said he doubts all the other 27 countries in the EU will sign up to David Cameron's immigration blueprint.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he thought some of the ideas were "sensible and workable".

But he added there were "some very serious question marks about whether others will ever really happen in practice and whether they are deliverable."

A ComRes poll for ITV indicates the majority of Britons do not see what benefits the UK gets from European Union membership.

The survey, taken before Mr Cameron's speech on Europe this morning, found 53% of the public do not see a plus side to EU membership.

Given the choice tomorrow on EU membership, 48% of people would vote to leave, while 32% would rather stay in, with the remainder undecided.

Significantly, more than in 7 in 10 respondents (72%) said they thought EU membership was bad in terms of its effect on immigration into the UK - an area the Prime Minister focused on today.

However almost two thirds of people (62%) said they thought the EU was a positive in terms of being able to move freely around other member states.

ComRes interviewed 2,049 British adults online between 21st and 23rd November 2014.

The European Commission has said proposals by David Cameron to restrict welfare payments to immigrants from other EU states will be debated.

A Commission spokesman said: "These are UK ideas and they are part of the debate.

"They will have to be discussed without drama and should be discussed calmly and carefully.

"It is up to national lawmakers to fight against abuses of the system and EU law allows for this."