Iain Duncan Smith aims to introduce his plans in the coming year[GETTY]EU migrants without a job could be banned from receiving benefits for longer than three months and deported if they have no hope of finding work.
Laws passed recently mean new arrivals already have to wait three months before being allowed to claim unemployment support.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said his plans, which he intends to introduce in the coming year, would mean “bye bye” to jobless immigrants after six months here.
Ministers are also keen to implement David Cameron’s plan to stop Britain becoming a migrant magnet by not allowing unrestricted immigration from new EU states until their economies reach a certain level of prosperity.
To make foreign labour less attractive, employers already face higher fines for paying less than the minimum wage and could face even stiffer penalties.
Home Secretary Theresa May confirmed yesterday that new measures to curb “benefit tourism” were under consideration – and hinted that the Lib Dems were the obstacle to bringing down migrant numbers.
She said: “We have been looking at various measures and we will continue to look at measures.”
Referring to Mr Duncan Smith’s proposals, she told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “We haven’t yet got agreement across the Coalition to do that. But these are the sorts of measures we keep looking at because in immigration you can never stand still.”
Pressed on the Lib Dems, she said: “It’s no surprise to anybody that there have been some, possibly heated at times, discussions among the Coalition on immigration.”
Because in immigration you can never stand still
EU law allows free movement around Europe if people are “exercising their rights” under the treaties to look for a job.
They could be deemed not to be doing that if they are not looking for work or have no chance of getting it.
Mrs May also insisted the Tory plan to cut net immigration to under 100,000 a year remained a target.
The initial pledge to reach it by 2015 is widely expected to be missed.
Last week official figures showed net migration had risen to 212,000 in the year to December, from 177,000 in 2012. EU migration surged from 158,000 to 201,000 last year.
However, Mrs May said 70,000 fewer people moved to the UK last year than in 2010 when the Coalition took power.
And she stressed that non-EU immigration, which the Government can control, had come down to its lowest level since the late 1990s.
She said other EU countries were now agreeing with her that abuse of EU free movement rules must be tackled.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mrs May was undermining trust by making “big pledges” on immigration and not honouring them.
She said: “They should accept the practical policies we have put forward over the last two years to strengthen border control, tackle the impact of immigration on wages and jobs, reform EU controls and replace the net migration target with a smarter system.”
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