Racist attacks on eastern Europeans could rise because of 'inflammatory rhetoric' , says Romanian ambassador Ion Jinga The embassy is also concerned about comments from Diane James, the Ukip candidate in the Eastleigh by-election, who apologised after last week warning of "pressure on services from immigration" and "crime associated with Romanians." Mr Jinga said: "Romanians in the UK are not a menace to British economy and society. Britain is one of our most close allies, friends and partners in Europe. In some areas it is the closest. He dismissed claims of that Romanians and Bulgarian workers would overwhelm the UK once restrictions on current numbers were lifted at the end of this year. He said: "We are aware of the arguments of those who fear a "flood" of Romanian and Bulgarian workers starting with January 1. "However, taking into account the near-exhaustion of Romania's potential to "export" workers and the fact that most of the Romanians who wanted to leave their country in order to work in other Member States, Britain included, have done so since 2007 ... we highly doubt that the lifting of restrictions for Romanian workers, on January 1st 2014, would lead to any significant increase in the number of Romanians coming to the UK." Instead Mr Jigna said that "lifting restrictions will actually prevent exploitation, ensure a fair, non-discriminatory treatment for Romanians already working in the UK and bring an additional contribution to the British Treasury through a more efficient tax collection. All these arguments need to be taken into account when talking about the effect of migration on the British economy, health and welfare systems. Mr Jinga suggested that some people were predicting "alarmist figures" after the Government spectacularly under-estimated the numbers of Poles who were likely to come to the UK when their restrictions were lifted in 2004. He said: "Therefore I remain fully confident that the British government will make a fair, fact-based analysis, and any measure envisaged to avoid possible abuses will fall within EU law which is designed to facilitate the free movement of people, and will apply to all EU nationals living in the UK." The Romanian foreign minister has been asked to give evidence to an inquiry by the House of Commons" home affairs select committee next month into the likely impact of the lifting of the restrictions. Last night Keith Vaz MP, the committee's chairman, said: "We need to be very careful indeed in the way in which we conduct the debate about Romanian and Bulgarian citizens. There are around 90,000 Romanian citizens already in the United Kingdom who are making an enormous contribution to our country. Many had to wait up to a year to get their right to work. It is important that we therefore ensure that when we deal with this subject we recognise that to use rhetoric that inflames tensions would not be helpful. That is why it is so important that the Government publishes the estimates it has got as to how many Romanians are going to come to our country. Mr Vaz on Thursday wrote to Nick Clegg urging him to publish the estimates, after the deputy Prime Minister said he had seen figures when he was being questioned during a LBC radio phone-in.