STOP THE EU COVER-UP!



Leave.EU believes that the public has a right to accurate and reliable migration data. We are therefore calling on the Information Commissioner to insist that the Government release the information it holds – however "unhelpful" this might be to them in their efforts to persuade voters that Britain should remain in the European Union.



The Government has been accused of a cover-up after refusing a Freedom of Information request asking for the number of EU workers in the UK to be disclosed, on the grounds that this would be "unhelpful" to the Government in its current negotiation process with the EU.



The request was made by Jonathan Portes, the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and former Chief Economist to the Cabinet Office, following revelations that the true scale of EU migration may be more than 2.5 times greater than official figures indicate.



This would be a major blow to David Cameron, who is desperate to win fairly minor changes to the way benefits can be paid to EU migrants so he can tell British voters he has secured a better deal from Brussels. If the Freedom of Information request had confirmed that the Government was misleading the public about the number of people coming to the country, it is likely that many voters would have lost all faith in an already underwhelming renegotiation.



Official figures, using information gathered by the International Passenger Survey (IPS), claim that 751,000 EU migrants came to Britain over the last four years – but the Department for Work and Pensions has issued 1.9 million National Insurance numbers to EU migrants in the same period.



The International Passenger Survey, which gathers information on just 0.2% of the 200 million people who enter and leave the United Kingdom every year, is an almost comically inadequate instrument for recording migration in the modern day. Indeed, members of the present government were extremely critical of it while in Opposition, with an inquiry chaired by Michael Fallon (now Secretary of State for Defence) condemning it as "not fit for purpose, having been designed to provide data for tourism and business travel purposes".



Mr Portes' request would have seen HMRC reveal how many National Insurance numbers issued to EU migrants are currently active, giving a more accurate picture of how many people have settled in the UK.



If you believe UK citizens have the right to access this information, sign our petition.