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Tony Blair: get tough on immigration to stop Brexit Tony Blair says UK could restrict immigration without Brexit
(about 3 hours later)
Tony Blair has called for tough new immigration rules which would allow Britain to exercise more control over who comes into the country without leaving the EU. Tony Blair declared a “renewed sense of mission” to fight against Brexit on Sunday as he insisted Britain could impose tough new restrictions on immigration without leaving the EU.
The former prime minister said the open borders he presided over were no longer appropriate and put his name to a report calling for tighter domestic controls and the negotiation of modified free movement rules with the EU. In the first of a series of interventions he plans this autumn as Brexit talks intensify, the former prime minister’s Institute for Global Change has published a paper setting out a series of ways in which the UK could restrict immigration within existing EU free movement rules.
This would fulfil the will of the people expressed in last year’s Brexit vote while allowing Britain to stay in the EU, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour should back the approach, he said. Speaking on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show, Blair said: “If, for example, the anxiety is downward pressure on wages as a result of an influx of EU migrants coming and doing work, say in the construction industry, we have it within our power to deal with that through domestic legislation.”
Blair’s intervention appears designed to provoke a fundamental shift in the Brexit debate and solve the seemingly intractable trade-off between the economy and immigration. He also suggested the mood within the EU on the meaning of free movement was changing, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, backing a directive that would crack down on using migrants to undercut the wages of domestic workers.
Theresa May has made controlling immigration her absolute Brexit priority but Brussels has stressed the UK will have to leave the single market if it wants to end the free movement of EU nationals. “If we want to deal with those questions, we can deal with them without the sledgehammer that through Brexit destroys the EU migration that we’ll actually need,” he said.
In an article for the Sunday Times website, Blair said: “There is no diversion possible from Brexit without addressing the grievances which gave rise to it. Speaking as parliament prepares for a showdown over the EU withdrawal bill on Monday, Blair urged politicians sceptical about Brexit to voice their concerns publicly.
“Paradoxically, we have to respect the referendum vote to change it.” “Brexit is a distraction, not a solution, to the problems this country faces. If members of parliament really believe that, then their obligation is to set out solutions that deal with the actual communities and problems people have, and not do Brexit which is actually going to distract us from those solutions.”
He added: “We can curtail the things that people feel are damaging about European immigration, both by domestic policy change and by agreeing change within Europe. The report published by Blair’s institute, which is written by the former Downing Street adviser Harvey Redgrave, suggests migrants could be asked to show they have a verifiable job offer before they can travel to Britain, and could lose the right to rent a home or claim benefits if they do not have the right to remain.
“This is precisely the territory the Labour party should camp upon.” Like non-EU migrants, they could also face higher tuition fees at British universities.
Blair has been blamed in many quarters for the rise in public concern about immigration which culminated in the Brexit vote, after failing to impose transitional controls on migrants from new EU member states in 2004. It also points out that some EU countries such as Belgium have a tougher migration regime within the existing free movement rules, requiring new arrivals to register.
But he said “back then the economy was strong, the workers needed”, adding: “The times were different; the sentiment was different, and intelligent politics takes account of such change.” Blair’s proposals stop well short, however, of the crackdown recommended in a Home Office paper obtained by the Guardian last week, which suggested low-skilled workers would be unlikely to be allowed to stay for more than two years.
Brexit voters’ concerns about “pressure on services”, “downward pressure on wages” and “cultural integration” now “cannot be ignored”, he said. Blair also suggested Britain could negotiate an emergency brake on immigration with the rest of the EU, focusing not on benefits as David Cameron did during his EU renegotiation, but on the impact of a rapid influx of people.
According to the newspaper, a report from the Tony Blair Institute, authored by former Downing Street policy expert Harvey Redgrave, urged the government to: He denied that his government had failed to realise the potential impact of migration, insisting that voters’ minds had been changed by the costs of the financial crisis and seven years of austerity.
• Force EU immigrants to register on arriving in the UK so authorities can check whether they go on to work or study, a measure already in place in Belgium. “2017, post-financial crisis, post-austerity, you’ve got to listen to what people are saying, and react,” he said.
• Make EU nationals show evidence of a job offer that is confirmed by their employer before they enter Britain. Some of the measures Blair set out, to tackle undercutting, for example, are similar to the approach taken by Labour. Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly advocated the posted workers directive, one of the EU measures Blair recommends.
• Ban those without permission from renting a home, opening a bank account, or accessing benefits. Blair renewed his criticism of the Labour leader, however, saying one of his fears was “Brexit combined with an unreconstructed leftist programme from Labour”. “Then we will be in very serious trouble,” he said.
• Introduce “discriminatory” controls restricting EU immigrants’ access to free NHS care if they are “economically inactive”. The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, also appeared on Marr on Sunday and rejected Blair’s argument, saying it contradicted his approach when in government. “It’s a bit late now, this epiphany. I’m not sure where he’s been,” he said. “Well I do know where he’s been, he’s been travelling the world.
• Let universities charge EU nationals higher tuition fees than British students. “The country’s decided we’re leaving the EU; we’ve got to get on with that. Tony Blair’s got to get over it.”
• Try and negotiate a change in free movement rules to introduce an “emergency brake” on people coming into Britain when public services are overstretched, which David Cameron attempted but failed to secure when renegotiating the UK’s EU membership ahead of the referendum. The Unite union boss, Len McCluskey, said Blair had missed the point because the only way to stop the abuse of migrant workers by “greedy bosses”, which brings about undercutting of wages and conditions, was to properly regulate the jobs market after Brexit.
Blair added: “If we go ahead with Brexit, we will have taken the unprecedented decision for a major country to relegate ourselves, like a top-six Premiership side deciding to play exclusively in the Championship. Describing the ex-PM as yesterday’s man, McCluskey told Pienaar’s Politics on BBC Radio Five Live: “He’s as out of touch now as he was in 2004.
“Other than President Trump, I can’t think of a single leader of any of our major allies or partners who thinks this decision is anything other than self-harming.” “He doesn’t address the idea because what Tony Blair and the New Labour government were a part of, and certainly what the Conservatives have continued, is creating this race to the bottom culture within our society rather than a rate for the job society.”
Tory grandee Lord Heseltine also suggested the EU could be open to reform of free movement after the German election this month, while criticising “damaging” proposals revealed in a leaked Home Office document this week.
The peer said immigration as an issue was a “low-hanging fruit” for politicians, who blame it for pressure on public services despite its contribution to the economy, in an effort to win over voters.
Addressing the Home Office plans in the Mail on Sunday, he wrote: “Free movement of labour would end immediately and all but the most highly skilled EU workers deterred from coming to this country.
“I fear the very social fabric of our caring society, health services and swaths of the public sector which depend on immigrant support could be destroyed if this happens.
“There have to be controls on immigration across Europe.
“Free movement is under question and we should join a discussion that could follow on from the German elections.”