Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has signaled she would rather see the UK leave the EU than compromise the free movement of immigrants, German magazine Der Spiegel reported, reports GHN based on RT.
The UK is nearing a "point of no return," as British Prime Minister David Cameron attempts to renegotiate the terms of the country's EU membership targeting the freedom of movement, Merkel reportedly said.
This was Merkel's first hint that the UK's exit from the union is a possibility, according to German media.
Cameron earlier said he wants to renegotiate the country's EU membership before going through with a referendum on the subject, with the European principle of freedom of movement "at the very heart of my renegotiation strategy for Europe."
Merkel has stressed that her support for UK membership could be reversed, if Cameron pursues migration reform.
Cameron has extended the EU laws "to their limits," trying to turn away unemployed migrants and seeking deportation of those unable to make ends meet after three months, according to the report.
However, the UK's Minister for Finance was not worried about the German Chancellor's comments.
"I think it's a little bit thin," George Osborne said of the report in Der Spiegel, saying conversations with the German government had shown Berlin understood British public disquiet about unemployed EU migrants claiming welfare benefits. "The British public want this addressed. We are going to do this in a calm, rational way," he told the BBC.
Earlier in October, the former European Commission (EC) president Jose Manuel Barroso stated that freedom of movement is an essential principle of the EU, and any plan by Britain to cap the number of migrants through the limitation of national insurance numbers would be illegal under EU law.