‘We’ve failed on deporting foreign criminals,’ David Cameron finally admits as he blasts £170m a-year bill for removing European offenders from the UK - but still says we should stay in the EU

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David Cameron finally admitted today that the Government 'should have done better' in deporting criminals from European Union countries. 

Expressing frustration at the 'fantastically difficult' process for removing foreign prisoners, the pro-EU Prime Minister accepted that it 'ought to be easier' to deport European prisoners. 

But he insisted that leaving the Brussels club would make it even more difficult to deport EU prisoners and said being part of the European Arrest Warrant was a 'powerful weapon' in helping the UK deport EU suspects. 

Appearing in front of the Commons liaison committee of senior MPs, Mr Cameron was challenged over the 4,217 EU offenders still living in the UK, which costs the UK taxpayer £169 million a year. 

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David Cameron, seen at today's liaison committee, told MPs he wanted to help EU leaders tackle counter terrorism work 

'Yes we should have done better,' Mr Cameron admitted for the first time today. 

He added: 'I have - I think - six-monthly National Security Council meetings on foreign national offenders and foreign national prisoners to try and speed up their exits from the UK. 

'It’s fantastically difficult, even when you’ve signed prisoner transfer agreements. It ought to be easier in Europe and at least in Europe we have got this directive on foreign national prisoners. We now need to act faster under this directive.

‘But my argument would be if we were to leave we would take several steps back and find it harder so it hasn’t been good enough, we need to go further but at least we have a mechanism through the EU to do it.

The Liaison Committee is made up of all the chairmen and women of the other House of Commons committees and grills the Prime Minister every three months

‘I would also add that the European Arrest Warrant has enabled us to extradite 7,000 EU suspected criminals from the UK so that’s a pretty powerful weapon too.’   

Mr Cameron was grilled on a range of other areas on the Government's approach to the EU referendum in lively exchanges with hostile Tory Eurosceptics.    

THE KILLER OF A HEADTEACHER WHO WE COULDN'T DEPORT BECAUSE OF EU DIRECTIVES  

Italian Learco Chindamo (left) killed headmaster Philip Lawrence (right) in 1995 but UK authorities failed to deport him back to his home country because of EU laws 

The most notorious killer we failed to deport because of EU directives is the Italian murderer Learco Chindamo. 

He was jailed for a minimum of 12 years after killing headmaster Philip Lawrence in 1995 at the age of 15.  

But in August 2007, an Asylum and Immigration tribunal ruled that Chindamo could not be deported to his home country of Italy on completing his sentence because of EU law. 

The tribunal stated that EU law stated Chindamo had a right to 'permanent residence' as he had lived in England since the age of six.

He was freed in July 2010 but just months later he was arrested in south London for a suspected mugging.  

Anti-EU campaigners point to Chindamo's case as a prime example of how Britain would find it easier to deport European nationals from the UK if it leaves the EU. 

Addressing security concerns, he told MPs that Britain is more 'tooled up' to tackle terrorism than EU allies because of the 2005 London bombings but said we should stay In to help allies catch up. 

He used the 90-minute appearance before the committee to admit his view on the security benefits of the EU had changed fundamentally in recent years. 

He was earlier accused of offering voters a 'false prospectus' to voters at June's EU referendum by MPs who claimed his deal in Brussels was worthless.

Mr Cameron said: 'In our country we have a lot of expertise because of what happened in 2005 and because we tooled up earlier in our capabilities of fighting terrorists ahead of others in Europe.

'I think that's an issue which if we remain in the EU I would like to give as much leadership on as I could.' 

Mr Cameron said his opinion of the EU's security advantages had 'definitely changed'.

He said: 'I think I used to believe Nato, Five Eyes, partnership with America, police, intelligence services – that’s how we deliver security, Europe’s got nothing to do with security I think I would have probably argued five or ten years ago. There’s no doubt in my mind that it has changed.

‘Those things I’ve just mentioned, they’re all still unbelievably important and they’re the most important things.

'But there’s no doubt in my mind that passenger name records, criminal records data, finger prints, DNA, terrorist information, border checks, border information – those things taken together are incredibly powerful and important to protecting our security.’

He added: ‘The European Arrest Warrant is actually very powerful for being able to arrest and bring back people to Britain very quickly.

‘There are some things we could theoretically negotiate your way back into but it would take a lot of time and a lot of time at a moment when we face a great danger in terms of terrorism.

‘And then there are some things I suspect you could get back into but you’d never have as much influence in them as you’d have now.

‘Europol being a good example, where the head of Europol is a Brit and I think if we got out of that we’d want to get back in, but we’d never get back in the same way.'  

The Prime Minister admitted in the early exchanges at the Commons liaison committee he could not 'over-emphasise' the success of his marathon talks that concluded in February.

But despite insisting the package offered 'additional reasons' for voters to back In on June 23, Mr Cameron still faced claims he was not being straight with the electorate.

Mr Cameron, left at today's committee hearing, was accused by Sir Bill Cash, right, of offering a false prospectus to voters at the referendum

Veteran Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash said: 'What you are saying is you want us to stay in the European Union but at the same time you are presenting the voters with a decision on June 23 based on a false prospectus.

'It's not irreversible and you can't say it is - you can't predict, Prime Minister, whether there will be any court decisions... you can't say there won't be changes in government and you can't say there won't be outcomes of a kind we had before on referenda.'

Mr Cameron insisted he had the weight of the legal opinion and the support of the Attorney General behind his case.

An exasperated PM told the committee: 'Let's not argue we are doing these things on a false prospectus - let's have an honest disagreement.

'You want to leave the EU, I want to stay in a reformed EU, we have a referendum.

'There are lots of big things to talk about, whether we are better off in or better off out but accusing each other of false prospectuses when the legal opinion is very clear, I think is a waste of time.' 

In another section of the hearing, Mr Cameron insisted Turkish accession to the EU was 'not remotely on the cards'. 

He said: 'It won't happen for decades.' 

'I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE': DEFIANT DAVID CAMERON INSISTS HE HAS A MANDATE TO STAY EVEN IF HE LOSES THE REFERENDUM 

Mr Camerojn used the committee appearance to insist he had spent his political career advocating staying in a reformed EU 

David Cameron today repeated his insistence he would stay on as PM regardless of the referendum result - making a pointed reference to his election win last year.

Mr Cameron has faced repeated questions about his future should he be defeated at the crunch poll on June 23.

Speaking at today's liaison committee in Parliament, Mr Cameron said the poll was more important than any one general election and would be a once in a 'generation' opportunity.

But pressed again on his future by Labour's Frank Field, Mr Cameron said: 'It is quite important this referendum is about Britain's future in Europe - it's not about one team of politicians or another team of politicians, or one person's future or another person's future.

'I will accept the verdict and do everything I can to put it in place.'

He added: 'We had a general election a year ago, we achieved a majority in Parliament, that is the mandate I have and part of that mandate was to have an in-out referendum on the basis of a renegotiation.' 

Tory MP threatens to SUE David Cameron if he refuses to take down pro-EU websites during referendum campaign - but the PM jokes: 'I better get back to the office then!' 

A Tory MP has threatened to sue David Cameron if he refuses to take down pro-EU websites in the run up to June's EU referendum. 

But the Prime Minister brushed aside the threat by joking: 'I better get back to the office fast then.' 

The remarkable blue-on-blue row came during a public session of Commons liaison committee as senior MPs grilled Mr Cameron on his approach to the EU referendum. 

David Cameron (right) laughed off Bernard Jenkin's (left) threat of legal action if the Government doesn't take down pro-EU web pages during the EU referendum 

Bernard Jenkin, a leading voice in the Brexit campaign, claimed the Government was breaking the law by refusing to take down websites and web pages that supports Britain staying in the EU.  

He said that if the web pages continue to be made public during purdah - the 28 days before an election when the Government is barred from using public money to promote one side - the Government will be breaking the law. 

The Government has published reports and other analysis on the benefits of EU membership - including the Treasury's controversial 200-page document last month claiming that each household could be £4,300 worse off by 2030. 

Mr Jenkin said House of Commons lawyers had advised it was 'abundantly clear' that the ban on government communication during an election campaign included electronic communication. 

Mr Cameron insisted that government websites referring to the EU referendum would not be updated or refreshed during the referendum campaign and described Mr Jenkin's demands for the websites to be taken down were 'extreme'. 

But threatening legal action, Mr Jenkin warned: 'If this doesn’t change Prime Minister, expect a letter before action and if we can raise the funds, expect a writ.'

Mr Cameron responded by puffing his cheeks and in a sarcastic response, said: ‘Right, there we are… I better get back to the office fast then. 

'It seems to me that taking down a website is a bit like saying you have to remove publications that people might already have from the government or whatever.'