Polish official calls for Tesco boycott in British migrant row

WARSAW, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A senior official in Poland's governing coalition on Wednesday urged Poles to retaliate for British Prime Minister David Cameron's remarks about Polish migrants pocketing British welfare payments - by boycotting Tesco (Xetra: TCO.DE - news) stores.

The British retailer sought to distance itself from a diplomatic spat that has already drawn in Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, saying that it dealt in "retail, not politics."

That has not prevented it being targeted by Jan Bury, head of the parliamentary faction of the Polish Peasants Party (PSL (BSE: PSLLTD.BO - news) ), who was quoted by state news agency PAP as calling Cameron's policies "unfriendly and scandalous towards Poland and Poles."

"As Poles, we can also say 'no' to prime minister Cameron and his policies," Bury, a former deputy treasury minister, said. "We call on Poles to boycott British retailer Tesco."

PSL is the junior partner in Tusk's governing coalition.

Cameron has said he wanted new EU rules to limit access for migrants to their host countries' welfare payments, and pointed to Poles, among the biggest migrant communities in Britain, as an example of the potential abuse of rules.

Ahead of 2015 elections, Conservative Party leader Cameron is under pressure to address voter concerns about immigration, an issue that flared up again this month after restrictions expired on Romanians and Bulgarians working in Britain.

Public unease about the inflow of migrants looks set to help the anti-EU UKIP party eat into the Conservative vote in this year's European parliament elections.

Cameron had said he thought it was wrong for Britain to be paying welfare benefits for children to Polish migrant workers to help support their families living back in Poland.

His spokesman later said it was "perfectly fair" for Cameron to mention Poles, as they had moved to Britain in larger numbers than nationals from other new EU member states when they joined the bloc in 2004.

Tusk said on Tuesday it was unacceptable to deny benefits to any EU citizen on the grounds of nationality.

In response to Bury's comments, Tesco said it employed 30,000 people in Poland and sold merchandise supplied by 1,500 Polish companies.

"We provide produce for over 5 million clients a week and have invested over 10 billion zlotys ($3.3 billion) in Poland," said Tesco's Polish spokesman Michal Sikora.

The supermarket chain competes in Poland with France's Carrefour (Paris: FR0000120172 - news) and Auchan, as well as the Biedronka chain owned by Portugal's Jeronimo Martins (Munich: JEM.MU - news) '.