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| Andy Burnham and Labour’s position in the immigration debate | |
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| Andy Burnham (Let’s take back control of the immigration debate, 17 December) says that Labour activists have “had no answer” about free movement of labour for those (often prompted by the rightwing press) who expressed concern about pressure on jobs, wages, housing and schools. Some of us did. There were some jobs that local people would not take, not just low-paid jobs. In construction, or driving buses, firms had to recruit in eastern Europe. If wages are depressed, that’s down to the weakening of trade unions. If housing and schools are under pressure, that’s because – even with imported workers – private housebuilders can’t turn a big enough profit, and the Tories stopped local councils from building houses, while Tory education policies deliberately make it impossible to plan properly for new school places. | Andy Burnham (Let’s take back control of the immigration debate, 17 December) says that Labour activists have “had no answer” about free movement of labour for those (often prompted by the rightwing press) who expressed concern about pressure on jobs, wages, housing and schools. Some of us did. There were some jobs that local people would not take, not just low-paid jobs. In construction, or driving buses, firms had to recruit in eastern Europe. If wages are depressed, that’s down to the weakening of trade unions. If housing and schools are under pressure, that’s because – even with imported workers – private housebuilders can’t turn a big enough profit, and the Tories stopped local councils from building houses, while Tory education policies deliberately make it impossible to plan properly for new school places. |
| There are positives about immigration, once you get past the nonsense that people come here for benefits. With our ageing population and a dropping birth rate, immigrants pay taxes to fund our pensions and social care. And anyone wanting to be mayor of Greater Manchester must know that the north-west, if it is to grow, faces a labour shortage (not just in skilled trades). | There are positives about immigration, once you get past the nonsense that people come here for benefits. With our ageing population and a dropping birth rate, immigrants pay taxes to fund our pensions and social care. And anyone wanting to be mayor of Greater Manchester must know that the north-west, if it is to grow, faces a labour shortage (not just in skilled trades). |
| Two years ago, just as the Tories were starting to wind up the rhetoric on immigration, I was at the opening of Manchester City’s football academy, where George Osborne was guest of honour and announced £50m of government funding on sport facilities around the UK – in a facility that cost £200m (of foreign investment) for that one site. It was built on the former dye works of Clayton Aniline – a company founded by a French immigrant. I spent the rest of Osborne’s speech compiling a little list of local firms founded by European immigrants or their children – Ferranti, Renold Chains, Beyer, Peacock, Brunner Mond (part of ICI). | Two years ago, just as the Tories were starting to wind up the rhetoric on immigration, I was at the opening of Manchester City’s football academy, where George Osborne was guest of honour and announced £50m of government funding on sport facilities around the UK – in a facility that cost £200m (of foreign investment) for that one site. It was built on the former dye works of Clayton Aniline – a company founded by a French immigrant. I spent the rest of Osborne’s speech compiling a little list of local firms founded by European immigrants or their children – Ferranti, Renold Chains, Beyer, Peacock, Brunner Mond (part of ICI). |
| I’m not sure what Andy’s “compromise” and “voice of reason” really means. Unless he buys into Theresa May’s nonsensical stance of “we want the best possible deal” (who would want the worst possible deal?), he’s effectively supporting “hard Brexit”. There really isn’t much room for compromise – the real problem is that “do you want hard or soft Brexit?” wasn’t on the ballot form. And if Andy wants to revive manufacturing industry in the area, he’ll need to know where the workers will come from.Rev Canon Cllr Steve ParishWarrington | I’m not sure what Andy’s “compromise” and “voice of reason” really means. Unless he buys into Theresa May’s nonsensical stance of “we want the best possible deal” (who would want the worst possible deal?), he’s effectively supporting “hard Brexit”. There really isn’t much room for compromise – the real problem is that “do you want hard or soft Brexit?” wasn’t on the ballot form. And if Andy wants to revive manufacturing industry in the area, he’ll need to know where the workers will come from.Rev Canon Cllr Steve ParishWarrington |
| • Unfortunately Andy Burnham has a point: Labour is out of touch not just with the lives of many of its traditional voters, but also with its socialist principles. Working-class people who complain about employers’ unscrupulous use of more “flexible” labour from eastern Europe are essentially accused of lying: for example, when Diane Abbott asserted that it has not had a negative impact on jobs, wages and conditions (Labour won’t win elections as ‘Ukip-lite’, Abbott warns, 26 November), she denied their lived experience. Their stories of the block-filling of jobs and lower hourly rates are dismissed as Daily Mail propaganda by middle-class liberals and leftists whose own comfort blinds them to the possibility of any motive other than a dislike of foreigners. | • Unfortunately Andy Burnham has a point: Labour is out of touch not just with the lives of many of its traditional voters, but also with its socialist principles. Working-class people who complain about employers’ unscrupulous use of more “flexible” labour from eastern Europe are essentially accused of lying: for example, when Diane Abbott asserted that it has not had a negative impact on jobs, wages and conditions (Labour won’t win elections as ‘Ukip-lite’, Abbott warns, 26 November), she denied their lived experience. Their stories of the block-filling of jobs and lower hourly rates are dismissed as Daily Mail propaganda by middle-class liberals and leftists whose own comfort blinds them to the possibility of any motive other than a dislike of foreigners. |
| Yet many employment agencies specialising in eastern European workers openly market themselves to companies on the basis of lower costs, and promises that they will be able to avoid the expense of holiday and sick pay as well as national insurance. Some also boast that there will be no hiring/firing complications and no risk of industrial tribunals. And the grateful employers in turn peddle the reactionary lie – too often swallowed by Labour as well as the media – that the unemployed are unemployable layabouts. A hyperfocus on identity politics has driven some parts of the Labour movement into what is essentially neoliberal economics – supporting, as Burnham suggests, big business to traffic workers for maximum profits. | Yet many employment agencies specialising in eastern European workers openly market themselves to companies on the basis of lower costs, and promises that they will be able to avoid the expense of holiday and sick pay as well as national insurance. Some also boast that there will be no hiring/firing complications and no risk of industrial tribunals. And the grateful employers in turn peddle the reactionary lie – too often swallowed by Labour as well as the media – that the unemployed are unemployable layabouts. A hyperfocus on identity politics has driven some parts of the Labour movement into what is essentially neoliberal economics – supporting, as Burnham suggests, big business to traffic workers for maximum profits. |
| Labour should spotlight what agencies and employers have been doing in response to the availability of workers from lower-wage and poorer-conditions economies. It should do this not because it will gain electoral support or even close out Ukip but because it is the right thing for a principled socialist party to do.Peter McKennaLiverpool | Labour should spotlight what agencies and employers have been doing in response to the availability of workers from lower-wage and poorer-conditions economies. It should do this not because it will gain electoral support or even close out Ukip but because it is the right thing for a principled socialist party to do.Peter McKennaLiverpool |
| • Can this be true? A senior Labour politician Andy Burnham talking sense about EU immigration and the European left’s political irrelevance thanks to its cosmopolitan, kamikaze championing of the free movement of people. | • Can this be true? A senior Labour politician Andy Burnham talking sense about EU immigration and the European left’s political irrelevance thanks to its cosmopolitan, kamikaze championing of the free movement of people. |
| If Brexit and Trump have taught us anything, it’s that it was the two “I”s, immigration and insecurity, that were behind their success. As the extreme right gains traction all over the continent, even the European left and centre’s most bone-headed advocates of the four freedoms will have to bow to the democratic winds of change and call for them to be limited. They were not after all carved in stone by Moses. | If Brexit and Trump have taught us anything, it’s that it was the two “I”s, immigration and insecurity, that were behind their success. As the extreme right gains traction all over the continent, even the European left and centre’s most bone-headed advocates of the four freedoms will have to bow to the democratic winds of change and call for them to be limited. They were not after all carved in stone by Moses. |
| As the complexity, long timetable and costs of Brexit become clearer, once controlling the free movement of people is on the table, then a second referendum, or a parliamentary vote on the Brexit on offer, could lead to a very different result. Were Labour to pursue such an approach it could unite the huge numbers of remainers and Brexiteers who want both controls on immigration and a mutually beneficial relationship with our European neighbours. But will the likes of Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn listen? If not they will to their shame almost inevitably lead the Labour party into political oblivion.Colin HinesEast Twickenham, Middlesex | As the complexity, long timetable and costs of Brexit become clearer, once controlling the free movement of people is on the table, then a second referendum, or a parliamentary vote on the Brexit on offer, could lead to a very different result. Were Labour to pursue such an approach it could unite the huge numbers of remainers and Brexiteers who want both controls on immigration and a mutually beneficial relationship with our European neighbours. But will the likes of Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn listen? If not they will to their shame almost inevitably lead the Labour party into political oblivion.Colin HinesEast Twickenham, Middlesex |
| • Carwyn Jones, first minister of Wales, is wrong to criticise Labour’s immigration policy as too London-centric (Report, 9 December). The value of free movement is not simply that it benefits London and other big cities; its value is that it has the capacity to stimulate economic activity and enterprise across the UK. Where the UK relies on free movement from other EU states to supply low- and medium-skilled workers, the evidence does not show that there is a pool of British citizens who are thereby displaced from work. Nor does it show that there is a material impact on wages and salaries. EU migration and the taxation of EU citizens in work leads to a net fiscal gain and provides the resources for the government to fund any extra provision of public services. | • Carwyn Jones, first minister of Wales, is wrong to criticise Labour’s immigration policy as too London-centric (Report, 9 December). The value of free movement is not simply that it benefits London and other big cities; its value is that it has the capacity to stimulate economic activity and enterprise across the UK. Where the UK relies on free movement from other EU states to supply low- and medium-skilled workers, the evidence does not show that there is a pool of British citizens who are thereby displaced from work. Nor does it show that there is a material impact on wages and salaries. EU migration and the taxation of EU citizens in work leads to a net fiscal gain and provides the resources for the government to fund any extra provision of public services. |
| The LSE study Brexit and the Impact of Immigration on the UK (May 2016) notes that “there is absolutely no statistically significant relationship (negative or positive) of EU immigration on unemployment rates of those born in the UK”. The report also notes that “wages of UK-born workers changed at much the same rate in areas with high EU immigration as in areas where the change in EU immigration was low”. | The LSE study Brexit and the Impact of Immigration on the UK (May 2016) notes that “there is absolutely no statistically significant relationship (negative or positive) of EU immigration on unemployment rates of those born in the UK”. The report also notes that “wages of UK-born workers changed at much the same rate in areas with high EU immigration as in areas where the change in EU immigration was low”. |
| UK workers are protected by UK employment laws, buttressed by EU provisions as to working time; they are also protected by the fact that the ambit of contribution-based social security schemes and other schemes for social assistance is regulated at UK level. There is no case for damaging what works well. Designing a system of work permits solely to placate misplaced sentiment will not do. Concerns about the impact of the recession, globalisation, fiscal austerity and the failure of the government to make adequate provision for education, housing and healthcare in particular areas, need to be directed to the government rather than blamed on free movement.Adrian BerryBarrister, Garden Court Chambers | UK workers are protected by UK employment laws, buttressed by EU provisions as to working time; they are also protected by the fact that the ambit of contribution-based social security schemes and other schemes for social assistance is regulated at UK level. There is no case for damaging what works well. Designing a system of work permits solely to placate misplaced sentiment will not do. Concerns about the impact of the recession, globalisation, fiscal austerity and the failure of the government to make adequate provision for education, housing and healthcare in particular areas, need to be directed to the government rather than blamed on free movement.Adrian BerryBarrister, Garden Court Chambers |
| • Andy Burnham’s missing the point. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding to see single market access as a benefit against which free movement of people is a cost. Free movement is a win-win benefit. The only people who think it isn’t are people who never go anywhere, or whose children cannot conceive that they might one day study in Stockholm or work in Warsaw. Burnham calls this limited and limiting view of the world part of a “balanced approach”. It is no such thing. It is a continuous tilt against social mobility. We have failed to communicate the benefits of the broadest possible geographical view of work, study and travel. The answer is not to pretend that the broad view is some flawed pipedream of metropolitan elites; it is to show everyone, everywhere, how to enrich their lives through the possibility of movement.Jon HarrisKnebworth, Hertfordshire | • Andy Burnham’s missing the point. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding to see single market access as a benefit against which free movement of people is a cost. Free movement is a win-win benefit. The only people who think it isn’t are people who never go anywhere, or whose children cannot conceive that they might one day study in Stockholm or work in Warsaw. Burnham calls this limited and limiting view of the world part of a “balanced approach”. It is no such thing. It is a continuous tilt against social mobility. We have failed to communicate the benefits of the broadest possible geographical view of work, study and travel. The answer is not to pretend that the broad view is some flawed pipedream of metropolitan elites; it is to show everyone, everywhere, how to enrich their lives through the possibility of movement.Jon HarrisKnebworth, Hertfordshire |
| • On Sunday (18 December), the International Organisation for Migration marked International Migrants Day by celebrating the positive impact of migration and diversity throughout the world and the overwhelming contributions of migrants to both their host countries and their countries of origin. We also remembered the many innocent lives lost on dangerous journeys in search of safety. In these increasingly uncertain times, we encourage everyone to come together to protect the safety, dignity and human rights of migrants. Migration is inevitable, necessary and desirable when well managed and it is up to each and every one of us to push outside our comfort zones and build a community of shared humanity; one of which we can be proud.Dipti PardeshiChief of mission, IOM UK | • On Sunday (18 December), the International Organisation for Migration marked International Migrants Day by celebrating the positive impact of migration and diversity throughout the world and the overwhelming contributions of migrants to both their host countries and their countries of origin. We also remembered the many innocent lives lost on dangerous journeys in search of safety. In these increasingly uncertain times, we encourage everyone to come together to protect the safety, dignity and human rights of migrants. Migration is inevitable, necessary and desirable when well managed and it is up to each and every one of us to push outside our comfort zones and build a community of shared humanity; one of which we can be proud.Dipti PardeshiChief of mission, IOM UK |
| • I can’t understand why the Labour party is in such a muddle over immigration controls (Editorial: Sleaford exposes Labour’s lack of direction, 10 December). Surely the answer is to be consistent in your approach to regulating capitalism. Free markets don’t work perfectly. Social democracy is about ensuring that capitalism works in the interest of the mass of the people. It follows that rents may have to be controlled and landlords regulated; that employers must be made to pay a minimum wage, observe health and safety laws and not dismiss their workforces unfairly; that bank should not take unnecessary risks; that the media industry should not be dominated by a few providers. In these and many other ways markets are regulated. | • I can’t understand why the Labour party is in such a muddle over immigration controls (Editorial: Sleaford exposes Labour’s lack of direction, 10 December). Surely the answer is to be consistent in your approach to regulating capitalism. Free markets don’t work perfectly. Social democracy is about ensuring that capitalism works in the interest of the mass of the people. It follows that rents may have to be controlled and landlords regulated; that employers must be made to pay a minimum wage, observe health and safety laws and not dismiss their workforces unfairly; that bank should not take unnecessary risks; that the media industry should not be dominated by a few providers. In these and many other ways markets are regulated. |
| Why then should the labour market be exempt from planning, control and regulation? Just because it is racist to prevent immigration solely on the grounds of nationality or skin colour, that shouldn’t deter a potential government from calling on labour market restrictions on rational, economic grounds. An oversupply of certain kinds of labour might threaten the existing workforce in an unacceptable way, and immigration should therefore be reduced; a shortage of labour or skills hinders economic growth and should lead to an increase in immigration. Approaching labour market problems from a rational, social-democratic perspective would be a way out of the Labour party’s current dilemma.Arthur GouldLoughborough, Leicestershire | Why then should the labour market be exempt from planning, control and regulation? Just because it is racist to prevent immigration solely on the grounds of nationality or skin colour, that shouldn’t deter a potential government from calling on labour market restrictions on rational, economic grounds. An oversupply of certain kinds of labour might threaten the existing workforce in an unacceptable way, and immigration should therefore be reduced; a shortage of labour or skills hinders economic growth and should lead to an increase in immigration. Approaching labour market problems from a rational, social-democratic perspective would be a way out of the Labour party’s current dilemma.Arthur GouldLoughborough, Leicestershire |
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