Sergei Stanishev on Bulgarian immigrants heading to UK

There will be "no influx" of Bulgarians to the UK when immigration controls are lifted next year, said former prime minister Sergei Stanishev.

Now the president of the Party of European Socialists, he told Andrew Neil that warnings of a surge in numbers coming from Bulgaria and Romania in January were "more a matter of scary domestic policy" than reality.

The former premier declined to predict how many Bulgarians would head to Britain, but said there were 35,000 Bulgarians in the UK in 2010, and only 600 were unemployed,

Mr Stanishev, who studied in Britain, said: "We all give something to the European Union, we all benefit from this and I can assure you I'm absolutely confident there will be no influx of Bulgarian immigrants to the UK."

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