The Defence Secretary has rowed back on his comments that towns and cities along the east coast of England are being "swamped" with immigrants and their residents are "under siege".
Michael Fallon said yesterday (October 26) that migrant workers claiming benefits should be subject to some form of restrictions to stop them from dominating the local population.
With UKIP gaining its first MP in Clacton earlier this month following Douglas Carswell, David Cameron has indicated he wants to changes the principle of freedom of movement for workers within the EU as part of a renegotiation of terms.
But in a German newspaper, Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected any such move.
Tory Michael Fallon told Sky News on Sunday: "The Germans haven't seen our proposals yet and we haven't seen our proposals yet, and that's still being worked on at the moment to see what we can do to prevent whole towns and communities being swamped by huge numbers of migrants.
"In some areas of the UK, down the east coast, towns do feel under siege, with large numbers of migrant workers and people claiming benefits, and it's quite right we look at that."
Today he retracted the comments when he told Radio 5 live he "misspoke" and had "used words I wouldn't normally have used".
