Politics

Corbyn's free movement plan to see surge in immigration with up 840,000 newcomers a year


Forecasts based on existing trends showed that the annual influx could treble under a Jeremy Corbyn-led government in the worst-case scenario. Senior Tories warned that the population surge would put a massive strain on the country’s public services. Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “Under Corbyn’s Labour, immigration would surge, and put huge strain on schools and our NHS. 

“Jeremy Corbyn has no credible plan for how to deal with the consequences of his open borders policy. 

“The biggest risk to our NHS is Corbyn’s plans for uncontrolled and unlimited immigration, forever.  

“His plan to hold another two referendums next year – and all the chaos that will bring – will mean that his Government will not have time to focus on the people’s priorities.”

Tory researchers based their analysis on a motion passed by the Labour conference in September calling for a future Labour government to “maintain and extend free movement rights”.

They accepted the proposal was “nebulous” as the motion failed to specify how far the rights should be extended.

But the analysis estimated that if existing European Economic Area free movement rights were kept in place after Brexit current trends suggested average net migration to the UK would be 260,000 over the next 10 years.

Were free movement rules to be extended to the rest of the world, the figure would reach 840,000, according to the research. 

“This is equivalent to the combined populations of Manchester and Newcastle moving to the UK every single year. 

“This means that levels of net migration would more than treble if Labour introduced their proposals for completely open borders,” said the Tory research document.

In contrast, the Tories want to replace EU free movement rules with an Australian-style points system that would welcome high-skilled migrants to the country.

Ms Patel said: “The Conservatives will get Brexit done, end free movement and introduce an Australian-style points system so that we can control our borders and protect our public services.

“We will reduce immigration overall while being more open and flexible to the highly skilled people we need, such as scientists and doctors. This can only happen if people vote for a Conservative majority government so we can leave the EU with a deal.”

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott rejected the Tory research last night.

She said: “This is more fake news from the Conservative Party’s make-believe research department.

“Unlike the Tories we won’t scapegoat migrants or deport our own Windrush generation citizens. The damage done to our society has been through damaging Conservative cuts to our public services, not by EU nationals coming to work in them.”



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