JOHN REID has won a Cabinet battle to impose controls on the arrival of citizens from Bulgaria and Romania after a row with Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary.

The Home Secretary will announce today limits on work permits to be granted to citizens from the two countries when they join the European Union in January, in a response to fears about a new wave of immigration.

But details of an extraordinary row were beginning to surface last night and they could carry on into a Cabinet committee meeting this morning.

Mrs Beckett believes that the move will cause a huge loss of goodwill in Eastern Europe and sources from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office say that she is apoplectic over Mr Reid’s tactics. They have accused him openly of leaking proposals to bulldoze the plans through the Cabinet. John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is thought to have backed Mr Reid.

The move to impose work controls is in stark contrast to the treatment of other new EU countries. When eight countries, including Poland, joined in 2004, Britain was one of only three countries to allow their residents unrestricted access. The Government predicted that up to 13,000 would come to Britain each year from those countries, but so far up to 600,000 have arrived.

Mrs Beckett has argued that, in general, the new arrivals have been of huge benefit and that the labour market has been able to absorb them. She believes that the same would have happened on this occasion, and that the controls will be impossible to police because self-employed workers have an unrestricted right to come.

A Foreign Office source said: “All the goodwill we got last time for the way we handled the other countries will be thrown away this time, and for what?” Another accused Mr Reid of picking on the new entrants to boost his hard-man credentials.

One government source admitted: “John has won the argument that we need restrictions on workers. But the Foreign Office is very unhappy. Margaret Beckett has made it clear she is opposed.”

A source close to Mrs Beckett said: “The Home Secretary is bulldozing this through with no regard for the Foreign Office. This will just nuke any goodwill we have with Bulgaria and Romania. That will have long-term negative effects.”

From January all Romanians and Bulgarians will be allowed to travel to Britain freely under EU rules. But Mr Reid will now impose a quota system on permits to work. British companies that wish to employ newcomers and have jobs for them will have to apply for the permits.

Mrs Beckett has said that it will lead to thousands working illegally on the black market.

Keith Vaz, a former Europe Minister, said that the plans were “a real blow to our reputation as the champion of enlargement [of the EU]”.

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