A shift in the government’s thinking about the Eurocrisis

Theresa May’s suggestion that Britain could suspend the free movement of people in the event of a Eurozone break up is a reminder of just how transformative an event the falling apart of the single currency would be. The Home Secretary is a cautious politician who picks her word carefully, so when she says that the government ‘will be doing contingency planning’ about the immigration implications of a Eurozone break-up you know it is serious.

One of the things that makes this such an intriguing development is that it suggests a shift in government thinking on the severity of the crisis that could be coming. A few months ago, a minister told me that they had looked at how many EU nationals could come to the UK in the event of countries falling out of the Euro and concluded that the numbers would be small enough to be manageable. May’s words suggest that analysis has now changed.