Don't treat us as migrants, Hungarian PM tells Cameron – Politics live

Andrew Sparrow

from on 2016-01-07 16:09 (#ZX9D)

Rolling coverage of all the day's political developments as they happen

4.09pm GMT

For us it is very important that we are not considered as migrants. Words matter here ... We would like to make it quite clear that we are not migrants into the UK. But we are the citizens of a state that belongs to the European Union who can take jobs anywhere freely within the European Union ... We do not want to go to the UK and take something from them. We do not want to be parasites. We want to work there, and I think that Hungarians are working well. They should get respect and they should not suffer discrimination.

According to our estimates, the Hungarians working in the UK altogether pay more contributions and taxes than the benefits that they get. So we belong to the world of the fair working people.

I'm sure that we will be able to find a solution which is going to be suitable for the Hungarian employees, for the Hungarian citizens, and that is also going to serve the requirements the government of David Cameron set for itself.

I do not really want to put new taxes onto anything. But we do have to recognise that we face potentially in Britain something of an obesity crisis. When we look at the effect of obesity on not just diabetes, but the effect on heart disease, potentially on cancer, we look at the costs on the NHS, the life-shortening potential of these problems, we do need to have a fully worked-up programme to deal with this problem. And we will be making announcements later in the year.

Of course it would be far better if we could make progress on all these issues without having to resort to taxes. That would be my intention. But what matters is that we do make progresss. I think we need to look at this in the same way in the past we've looked at the dangers of smoking to health, and other health-related issues.

3.31pm GMT

Here is the Guardian's Politics Weekly podcast, with Polly Toynbee, Rowena Mason, Toby Helm and Tom Clark discussing the Labour reshuffle and the EU referendum.

3.26pm GMT

Q: Have you been talking about reducing the four-year ban to three years? Or imposing a residency test?

Cameron says he has set out his proposals. If he does not achieve those goals, he rules nothing out.

We would like to make it quite clear that we are not migrants into the UK.

3.20pm GMT

Q: Will you compromise on your four-year benefits plan?

Cameron says the welfare system provides something of an artificial draw.

3.16pm GMT

Q: How complicated were you talks today? How close are you to an agreement?

Cameron says these are complicated issues; not just on benefits, but on the other demands too.

3.11pm GMT

This is from the BBC's Ben Wright.

Hungarian PM avoids saying anything about Cameron's 4 year benefit ban. Instead points out Hungarians contribute to UK economy.

3.10pm GMT

They are now taking questions. There will be two from Hungarian media, and then British questions.

3.10pm GMT

David Cameron says it won't be another 10 years until a British prime minister, this British prime minister, returns to Hungary.

3.08pm GMT

David Cameron is speaking now. He says he came to Hungary in the 1980s as a student.

He says Britain and Hungary share the same perspectives on Europe. They want a Europe that works. And they want subsidiarity to apply.

3.05pm GMT

Orban says he is not satisfied with the competitiveness of Europe. He supports the measures to improve it.

(Cameron has made demands for EU reform in four areas; one of those is competitiveness.)

3.02pm GMT

Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, opens the press conference.

He says a UK prime minister lasted visited Hungary 10 years ago.

2.44pm GMT

The Commons foreign affairs committee has published two transcripts, here and here, of conversations Tony Blair had with the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in February 2011 when Blair was trying to persuade Gaddafi to stand down. Blair discussed the conversations in evidence to the select committee before Christmas.

2.35pm GMT

My colleague Nicholas Watt is in Budapest to cover David Cameron's meeting with Viktor Orban.

Here is his preview story.

Orbin is not a natural ally for Cameron. But he could be vital as the prime minister battles to win support for the most contentious proposal in his EU negotiation package - a four-year ban on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits.

Hungary is a key member of the Visegrad group of countries in central and eastern Europe whose admission to the EU in 2004 marked the high point in their journey away from the cold war Soviet grip as members of the Warsaw pact. The Visegrad group, whose largest member is Poland, share a determination to avoid restrictions on the millions of their citizens who have used the EU's rules on free movement to work in the UK.

2.31pm GMT

Here is David Cameron being welcomed by Viktor Orban earlier.

2.29pm GMT

David Cameron will soon be holding a press conference with his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban.

There is a live feed here, on the Reuters website.

2.17pm GMT

What we have got to remember is Jeremy has inherited a Parliamentary Labour Party well to the right of the membership. That is because during the four general elections under Blair and Brown, local Labour parties weren't allowed to choose the candidate they wanted, they had to select from a list approved by the party bureaucracy. People who were critical of American foreign policy or wanted to crack down on the tax avoidance of big corporations never got onto the list. What these MPs can't now do is say 'We have got a right to override the wishes of the party membership'.

You claim that Britain can have all the benefits with none of the costs. You promise to simultaneously end free movement, end all contributions to the EU budget, opt out of economic rules and regulations, whilst still retaining full access to the single market.

This is nothing short of an impossible fantasy. If you can demonstrate otherwise, I'm more than happy to have that debated. But it's simply not acceptable for your campaign to continue to duck questions about what 'Out' looks like. You must produce hard evidence to back up your assertions and be realistic about the economic consequences.

1.35pm GMT

That was quick. Ken Livingstone has been slapped down. Labour HQ has put out a statement saying Nato membership will not be part of the defence review. A spokeswoman said:

The terms of the defence review are still to be agreed but will not look at our membership of Nato.

1.25pm GMT

There is some good comment around today about the Labour reshuffle. Here are six of the best articles I've seen.

For the first time in two decades, the Blairites, Brownites and neutrals within the parliamentary Labour party are fully as one.

It helps that Corbyn managed to sack or sideline one of each in the only substantive moves of his reshuffle: Dugher, Pat McFadden and Maria Eagle all made to walk the plank; the first two with the frankly disgraceful accusation that they had been incompetent in their jobs.

There have been few more pathetic displays of political impotence than the tweets sent by shadow cabinet members paying tribute to Michael Dugher after his sacking by Jeremy Corbyn. Dugher, a classic northern Labour fixer, had taken on the role of shadow cabinet shop steward. He spoke out against Momentum, the Corbynite pressure group, warned against a 'revenge reshuffle' and criticised negative briefings against the shadow cabinet from the leader's office.

But rather than protesting at his sacking through a walkout, shadow cabinet members confined their solidarity to a 140-character gesture. Their tweets, rather than looking like brave defiance of the boss, actually showed just how cowed they are.

It is important to understand that while the era of New Labour might be the crucial period as far as younger supporters of Corbyn and his supportive commentators are concerned, for the major players both around the leadership in Westminster and in the country, it is Neil Kinnock's leadership of the party that is marks Labour's fall from grace, not the Blair-Brown years.

"It was emblematic of Neil Kinnock's turn to the right," Diane Abbott told me recently, "that he abandoned his lifelong commitment to nuclear disarmament." Corbyn and his allies now have a golden opportunity to undo Kinnock's apostasy over the next year - with a policy change at party conference next year and with more full-throated opposition to the deterrent now that Eagle, who favours retaining Trident, is no longer in the Defence brief. While "revenge" for the battle gone over Syria may have been delayed, Corbyn is a better place for the one to come over Trident.

For once, I am on Jeremy Corbyn's side. His shadow cabinet reshuffle makes sense. So do many of the other things he has been criticised for doing in recent weeks: backing Momentum as a grassroots campaign to support his leadership, seeking to reduce the power of Labour's national Policy Forum, wanting Labour MPs to heed the views of party members and working with other left-wing groups in the Stop The War coalition.

The first is to believe that the party is now divided into two warring tribes, in which only one can triumph. War to the death - or decisive split - is the only option. From Labour's right, this is what former Blair advisor Peter Hyman has recently argued. From Labour's left, it drives the grass roots movement to deselect Labour MPs. Plenty of those close to the leadership, like Momentum's organiser Jon Lansman, have spent their political lives wanting to reduce MPs to delegates of the members.

The other route is to recognise that no one would have chosen to be here, but we have to make the best of it. A fight to the death will simply mean that we all die together. There is no reason to assume Labour will always bounce back; not when the social and economic conditions that created mass labour parties are disappearing right across Western Europe. Good will and hard work, could produce a Party more radical than in recent years, and a party in which most of the PLP and the membership can be comfortable. No one will get everything they want, but common ground might make progress possible.

On what planet is it a good idea to start briefing about a reshuffle and it's potential casualties over the period more commonly dedicated to peace, goodwill and a slow news cycle?

On what planet is it a good idea to then hold that reshuffle on the day your activists got up super-early, in the cold and the rain to leaflet stations across the country thus stepping all over your own fares campaign? ...

1.12pm GMT

This is what Ken Livingstone said on the Daily Politics about Labour's defence review considering the case for leaving Nato. He was responding to a question from Andrew Neil, who asked Livingstone if he favoured leaving Nato. Livingstone replied:

That's one of the things we will look at. Many people want to do that. I don't think it's a particularly big issue because in the cold war it was, it isn't now.

There will be people making those suggestions. We are looking at the entire defence review. My main view on this is it doesn't really matter whether you are in Nato or not terribly much because the cold war is over. If we are to stay in Nato, the question is what's it's role going to be? Invading more countries in the Middle East? I'm not in favour of that.

12.49pm GMT

Ken Livingstone, the former Labour mayor of London, a key Jeremy Corbyn ally and co-chair of Labour's defence review, has been on the Daily Politics. He said two significant things.

Ken Livingstone says he hopes Labour will have a new position on Trident before Commons vote or by the summer. #bbcdp

"That's one of the things we will look at. I don't think it's a particularly big issue" - Ken Livingstone on UK leaving NATO #bbcdp

12.38pm GMT

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has issued a statement saying George Osborne has himself to blame for the problems facing the economy. McDonnell said:

This chancellor has mixed his own cocktail of rising consumer debt, an over reliance on borrowing from overseas, with a lack of sustained investment, while failing to support manufacturing, and topping it all off with lighter regulations for the banks. The problem is that the rest of us taxpayers will be the ones left with the hangover.

Labour has consistently warned that George Osborne has to wake up and stop being complacent about the warning signs that the global economy could be slowing, but instead he has chosen to play political games with fiscal targets that would simply tie his hands.

12.09pm GMT

David Cameron was in Germany this morning, in Bavaria, where he was attending a conference of the CSU (Christian Social Union), the Bavarian-based sister party of Angela Merkel's conservative CDU (Christian Democratic Union). In a clip for broadcasters he said his talks had made him "even more confident" that he would get a deal on the demands he is requesting for his EU renegotiation. He said:

We believe that all these issues [the British demands] can be dealt with. The discussions are going well, they are hard, they are tough. These are difficult issues. But I am confident, with goodwil - and there is goodwill, I think, on all sides - we can bring these negotiations to a conclusions and then hold the referendum that we promised.

I'm even more confident after the excellent discussions I've had here in Bavaria with colleagues in the CSU that these things are possible, not just good for Britain, but good for Europe ... I have been very heartened by the goodwill I have felt from the fellow sister party members in the CSU here in Bavaria today.

11.36am GMT

In a written statement, Michael Gove, the justice secretary, has announced that Peter Clark, the former Met counter-terrorism chief, has been made chief inspector of prisons, and that Dame Glenys Stacey, the head of Ofqual, has been appointed chief inspector of probation.

11.24am GMT

Talking of mayors, the current mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been talking about the EU referendum. And he has been fuelling speculation again that he could back an Out vote.

Johnson refused to say whether or not he would be campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU. He hoped Britain would stay in a reformed EU, he said, but he needed to see if David Cameron would secure the appropriate reforms.

If we cannot get the reforms we need, then Britain has a great, great future elsewhere, outside, in a different relationship.

11.15am GMT

Sadiq Khan, the Labour candidate for London mayor, is increasing his lead over Zac Goldsmith, his Conservative rival, according to the Evening Standard's Joe Murphy.

Sadiq Khan ahead by seven points in mayoral race - up five pts since November. Source: New @YouGov poll coming out on LBC

Before housing costs are taken into account, London has an equivalent - even lower - rate of in-work poverty than other regions. When you factor housing costs in, London has a far bigger problem.

I'll do what I can to make the case for the London living wage, but I'll also seek to make it a far easier choice to take.

With the right financial devolution package, the mayor will be in a stronger position both to raise finance and to offer incentives for businesses to take choices that support the fairer sharing of the rewards of growth.

10.55am GMT

The Spectator's Isabel Hardman has written a blog exploring why George Osborne is sounding so gloomy this morning. Here's an excerpt.

Perhaps the chancellor is just covering himself in case the economy takes a turn for the worse. He's acutely aware that crises tend to blow up out of things everyone has been ignoring at a time when everyone least expects it.

Or perhaps he's worried about the real opposition he's going to face over the next few years, which is from members of his own party both in Parliament and local government, as cuts to services like social care come in. Making the point that the bountiful and safe times aren't here yet is one way of stopping those Tory critics from causing the chancellor trouble.

10.37am GMT

The Telegraph columnist Dan Hodges (Guardian readers least favourite journalist, if comments BTL are anything to go by) has been "streaking" down Whitehall this morning to honour a promise he made when predicting Ukip would do badly in the election. The Press Association have filed a story.

Political journalist Dan Hodges braved the rain as he streaked in Westminster after losing a bet.

The 46-year-old ran from Trafalgar Square in London and down Whitehall in nothing but trainers and a pair of black Calvin Klein underpants as a forfeit for underestimating the Ukip's influence during last year's general election.

10.08am GMT

Here are some more lines from George Osborne's Today programme interview. I have already quoted what he said about interest rates. (See 9.03am.)

Well [Cameron] hasn't changed his mind actually. But again, I think most people accept that you know, I'm close to David Cameron and we work very well together and we're good colleagues. And I know that for a very considerable period of time he's thought it is right that when the moment comes and the question is put to the British public about whether we remain in the European Union, a reformed European Union which is what we're looking for, or we leave, the individual members in the government, just like members of the public, should in a personal capacity should be able to express their opinion even though the government will have a taken an opposing view.

That was a completely independent decision that I had no foreknowledge of, no advanced warning of. It's got to be an independent decision for our banking regulator.

I would say that we did have that investigation; it was a cross-party parliamentary commission that included people like the Archbishop of Canterbury on it. We've implemented its recommendations, including, for example, a new regime where senior bankers have to be properly certified, held to account, can be found guilty of misconduct.

Martin Wheatley did a good job setting up the organisation but I think it needs new leadership to - and by the way this is a brand new consumer regulator that I have set up, which didn't previously exist - but I think it needs new leadership to take it into its more mature phase where it has been established and we're looking now for the very best candidate. To be fair there is a very effective interim leader in Tracey McDermott [who] has been doing a good job - she doesn't want the job full time.

9.51am GMT

Finally, the Labour reshuffle is over. This morning the party has released the names of six junior frontbench appointments.

Kate Hollern - shadow defence minister

9.03am GMT

Economic policy making is partly about expectations management and today George Osborne, the chancellor, is out trying to shape our view of what 2016 is going to be like. He is giving a speech this afternoon, heavily trailed in advance, in which he will warn that the economy faces a "dangerous cocktail of new threats". As Larry Elliott reports, he will say:

Anyone who thinks it's mission accomplished with the British economy is making a grave mistake. 2016 is the year we can get down to work and make the lasting changes Britain so badly needs. Or it'll be the year we look back at as the beginning of the decline. This year, quite simply, the economy is mission critical.

The Bank of England is completely independent ... and it would be wholly inappropriate to put put any pressure [on it] and, by the way, people like Mark Carney [the governor of the Bank of England] would not respond to that kind of pressure because they are more than capable of making their own decisions.

But can I make this point. Just before Christmas the United States saw a rise in interest rates, the Federal Reserve put interest rates up. That was the beginning of the exit, if you like, from the very, very low interest rates in the so-called ultra-loose monetary policy that was put in place during the crash. Of course there will come a point where that happens in Britain, a decision made by our independent central bank. Rising interest rates can be a sign of a strong economy, and that was of course the justification the Federal Reserve used.

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