Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has suggested that he will continue freedom of movement in a new renegotiated soft-Brexit treaty if he becomes prime minister.
Asked by an Al-Jazeera journalist during a campaign event in Telford on Wednesday if Mr Corbyn would offer EU-style “freedom of movement” migration as part of his proposed new “Soft Brexit” deal, the socialist said: “There has to be that movement of people.”
“Our young people do need access to things like the Erasmus scheme so they can study in universities in other parts of Europe and indeed other parts of the world. I want our young people brought up in a world where they can travel, they can experience other societies, they can make their contribution there. That enriches their lives and enriches the lives of all of us,” Mr Corbyn claimed.
The far-leftist reminded the audience that he had tabled a motion after the 2016 referendum “saying that all EU nationals should have a guaranteed right to remain in Britain and the right of family reunion” — i.e., chain migration.
Mr Corbyn continued: “I want to make sure that all those European Union nationals do remain here, can come here, will stay, and we will be happy to work with them as indeed many British people have made their homes in other parts of Europe making equally valuable contributions to those societies where they’ve gone to live.” (Emphasis added.)
The remarks came after, in April, the Labour Party said it would end free movement of EU migrants after the United Kingdom leaves the bloc, appearing to recognise about migration being used to hold down wages and straining public services.
The party’s 2017 manifesto had said that “Freedom of movement will end when we leave the European Union,” adding: “Labour will develop and implement fair immigration rules.”
Conservative Party security minister Brandon Lewis told the i newspaper: “Just two years ago, Jeremy Corbyn pledged that freedom of movement would end when we leave the European Union.
“Today, he said that he wants to ensure all EU nationals ‘can come’ to the UK – which would put massive pressure on our NHS, schools and the police. A vote for Jeremy Corbyn at this election is a vote for unlimited immigration and the chaos of two more referendums [on EU membership and Scotland’s status in the United Kingdom].”
Labour Party members had backed scrapping immigration rules and effectively turning the United Kingdom into an open borders state at their party conference in September.
Members voted to “maintain and extend free movement rights” beyond the borders of the EU, closing all detention centres for illegal aliens and bogus asylum seekers, scrapping Conservative immigration caps — to the extent that they ever really existed in practical terms — and effectively stopping all deportations.
The far-leftists also backed the party adopting as official policy the “awarding of equal voting rights to all UK residents” — i.e. giving all foreigners living in the country the same rights as British citizens to vote in national elections.
Such policies could be included in Labour’s yet-unpublished 2019 election manifesto, which is expected to include pledges to use taxpayers’ money to pay for renationalisation of the railways and free university education for all. The party has also pledged to lower the working week to 32 hours (or four days) within a decade without a loss in salary — a proposal which the Centre for Policy Studies said would cost British taxpayers £17 billion in the public sector.
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