'Don't stigmatize Poles' foreign minister tells Cameron

London and UK still one of the major magnets for Poles: photo - PR

"UK social security rules apply to all resident EU citizens. No need to stigmatize Poles. What about British children abroad?," Sikorski said in one tweet on Monday following the British government floating more plans to restrict EU migrant’s access to welfare benefits.

Sikorski's Twitter offensive comes after Prime Minister David Cameron said at the weekend: "It's wrong that someone from Poland, who comes here, who works hard - and I am absolutely all in favour of that - but I don't think we should be paying child benefit, to their family back at home in Poland."

Under current rules, Polish migrants - who flocked to the UK in their hundreds of thousands after Poland joined the EU in 2004 - are able to claim child benefit in Britain if they are paying full taxes, even if that child is living in Poland.

Poland's foreign minister responded to the remarks with several tweets on Monday, however, indicating that his government would block any attempt by Cameron to try and change the EU's laws on benefits.

"If Britain gets our taxpayers, shouldn't it also pay their benefits? Why should Polish taxpayers subsidize British taxpayers' children?," Sikorski tweeted.

"Make your social security less generous if you wish, but without discriminating among resident EU taxpayers," he added.

PM Cameron has also said that he plans to try and restrict the number of immigrants within the EU eligible to come to Britain after Romanians and Bulgarians gained full rights to work in the UK on 1 January. (pg)