Election 2019: Boris Johnson vows end to migrants

Election 2019: Boris Johnson vows end to migrants ‘treating Britain as their own’

Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor

December 9 2019, 9:00am, The Times

EU migrants have been able to “treat the UK as if it’s part of their own country” for too long, Boris Johnson said yesterday as he reprised the core message of Vote Leave’s 2016 EU referendum campaign.

The prime minister guaranteed that migration would fall under his plan for an Australian-style points-based system after Britain left the European Union. The focus on migration, in stronger language, in the last days of the election campaign is intended to appeal to undecided Eurosceptic voters in Labour marginals.

He told Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News: “I’ve said that what we want to do is bear down on migration particularly of unskilled workers who have no job to come to and I think that’s what’s happened over the last couple of decades or more. You’ve seen quite a large number of people coming in from the whole of the EU — 580 million population — able to treat the UK as though it’s basically part of their own country and the problem with that is there has been no control at all and I don’t think that is democratically accountable.

“You have got to have a system by which politicians can say to people, ‘Well, yes, we are letting people in but we are doing it in a way that is controlled and checked’.”

Asked whether he could “guarantee that numbers will come down”, he said: “Yes, I can make sure that numbers will come down because we’ll be able to control the system in that way.”

Jo Swinson began the final week of the campaign by steering away from the Liberal Democrats’ commitment to revoking Article 50, which has been widely criticised, and back towards a so-called People’s Vote. She told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that a revocation could only be delivered in the improbable scenario of a Lib Dem majority and emphasised that the party had legislation ready for a new referendum that would be “the most likely way to stop Brexit”.

Mr Johnson gave more details of Conservative plans. Migrants would be issued with one of three visas. He said that those with “exceptional talents” such as “violinists, nuclear physicists, prima ballerinas” would be allowed to come to the UK “simply because of what they contribute”. Skilled workers, including NHS staff, could come if they had a job lined up. Both groups would be allowed to settle. A third group of unskilled workers would be granted short-term visas in sectors where there were shortages but would not be able to stay for good.

The Migration Advisory Committee would be given power to set the number of visas needed in key sectors, enjoying the same independence as the Bank of England has in setting interest rates.

Mr Johnson said: “I think people want to see democratic control. I don’t think people in this country are hostile to immigration at all, let alone being hostile to immigrants, but they want it democratically controlled and that’s what Brexit allows us to do.”

Jon Ashworth, the shadow health and social care secretary, accused the prime minister of “lying to the British people” and said that free movement had been “good for the economy”. He argued that the Tories would have “no democratic control” over the immigration numbers.

Mr Ashworth told Ridge: “He said the committee will be independent in the same way as the Bank of England is independent so he is misleading people when he says he is bringing immigration down because there will be no democratic control. There will be no accountability over any decision that any immigration minister makes because it will be handed over to a statutory independent committee.”

Mr Ashworth said that Britain “should absolutely maintain free movement for the National Health Service and the social care sector” because they “literally could not survive if we did not continue to recruit internationally”.

Matthew Fell, of the CBI, said that the proposals put too much emphasis on the “brightest and best”. He said: “Workers needed to boost economic growth must feel welcome in the UK. Until there is more detail, these plans will leave them nervous. Low-level skills are still very much in demand.”

Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, claimed that the prime minister had “always been very soft” on migration. He said: “They’re [Tories] beginning to say the same things. The problem is they’ll make no real commitment to cut the numbers coming in and this is the fourth Conservative manifesto in a row promising to reduce numbers.”