SO much for David Cameron's firm assurances after Eastleigh that Conservative policy would not swerve to the right to counter Ukip's electoral threat ("Scots human rights chief condemens Tory EU threat", The Herald, March 4).

The announcement of benefit cuts for EU immigrants (with the presumably attractive side-effect of further restricting benefit entitlements for some UK citizens) looks suspiciously like a desperate sop to the Ukip vote-stealers.

The decision by the Prime Minister and senior Conservatives to inflame public fears about immigration from Romania and Bulgaria when restrictions are lifted next year is cynical and economically nonsensical. 2014 is not going to be a repeat of 2004, when emigration suddenly became possible for ambitious workers from all over Eastern Europe, and the UK was one of a handful of countries not to impose "transitional restrictions". With Romania and Bulgaria, full restrictions were put in place when they joined the EU in 2007; but in any case, virtually anyone who wanted to migrate from these countries did so years ago.

The Government's own figures show that even in the years after 2004, when EU migration levels were high, the UK economy proved flexible enough to absorb newcomers without significant impacts on other workers. EU migrants make a substantial net contribution to the Treasury's coffers, and are much less likely than British-born people to claim out-of-work benefits.

It is perverse to complain about a possible influx of educated, motivated young people who will certainly benefit the country's economy. If the Government were honest, it would spend its energy explaining the facts rather than perverting them for political gain. Today's fresh outbreak of little-Englander xenophobia is shameful.

John M Brand,

Chairman,

European Movement,

12b Cumberland Street SE Lane,

Edinburgh.