However, British National Party MEP Andrew Brons feared it was a move towards "freedom of movement of claimants".

BBC: MEPs welcome new social security rules

The BNP won two seats in the European Parliament in 2009, with leader Nick Griffin elected in North West England and Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and Humber.

BBC: BNP rejects calls to curb its EU money as 'totalitarianism'

The BNP won two seats, in the North West and in Yorkshire and the Humber, for its leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, a former chairman of the National Front.

ECONOMIST: The BNP's breakthrough

However British National Party MEP Andrew Brons called for VAT to be scrapped and replaced with a local sales tax, claiming that VAT was a "regressive" tax, paid disproportionately by the less well-off.

BBC: MEPs urge reform of VAT rules

Andrew Brons left the BNP last year.

BBC: BNP rejects calls to curb its EU money as 'totalitarianism'

The British National Party lost all six of the seats it was defending in last year's English local elections and one of its two MEPs, Andrew Brons, has said he has been "expelled in all but name" from the party.

BBC: Peter Davies, Mayor of Doncaster