Daily Mail
December 31, 2013
A leading Conservative has warned that council taxpayers face rising costs from the influx of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants set to start tomorrow – and claims that Roma are already causing trouble by begging aggressively and defecating in public.
Philippa Roe, leader of Westminster City Council, said that local authorities had ‘no idea’ how many Eastern Europeans would come to Britain after immigration restrictions are lifted on January 1.
And a police commissioner in the Midlands revealed that more crimes are committed by Romanians than by any other group of foreign nationals in his area even before the rules have changed.
Many Tories and immigration campaigners have been warning for month that tens of thousands of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens are set to come to Britain when laws banning them from are repealed tomorrow.
Ms Roe said today that some members of the Roma community have already been causing trouble in Central London with their aggressive and unhygienic behaviour.
‘You’ve only got to wander around Marble Arch at 7.30 in the morning to see the camps,’ she told The World at One on BBC Radio 4.
‘We have people walking out of their front door to find people sleeping on their front doorsteps, people defecating on their front doorstep – it’s extremely unpleasant and it goes with the very aggressive begging and pickpocketing and other sorts of crime in the area which affects both residents and tourists.
‘It’s this minority one is really concerned about, but it is this minority that has this really big impact.’
She added: ‘We have been trying hard to make sure we are prepared but one of the issues we face is we just have no idea how many people are going to come to London and draw on our resources.’