Free movement of labour can be bad for businesses and bad for wages

SIR – Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the CBI (Comment, February 23), writes that “access to skills and labour is a vital consideration for firms wishing to invest in the UK”.

She follows this with the statement that “investment is vital for productivity growth, the only route to sustainably higher wages”.

Each statement is correct in and of itself, but it is not the case, as she seeks to imply, that free movement of labour leads to investment and higher wages – quite the opposite, in fact.

Unfettered access to workers who are already trained removes the need for firms to invest in training at home, and access to unlimited numbers of unskilled but compliant workers encourages the creation of low- rather than highly paid jobs. In a free-market economy, investment is only made if it is necessary, and high wages are only paid when the supply of workers is limited compared with the demand. Tim Beechey-Newman Caversham, Berkshire SIR – Only some 37 per cent of the electorate voted to leave the EU. The main arguments from those in favour of Brexit were on finance, immigration and control.

On finance, it is quite clear that we are going to lose far more than we gain from leaving the EU. On immigration, we need to accept the fact that immigrants are keeping our economy and our services going. When the pound sinks to the level of the zloty, or lower, all those wonderful immigrant workers are going to quit.

Finally, on control: arguments over a “hard” or a “soft” Brexit miss the point. If we are to continue exporting to the biggest market in the world on our doorstep, we will have to conform to regulations over which Britain will no longer have any influence. Elsewhere, World Trade Organisation rules will apply.

I am not a “Remoaner”, but a patriotic Remourner. Our MPs need to save the country from itself. Neville Grant London SE3 SIR – Rather than seeking to overturn Brexit, Sir John Major, Tony Blair and those like them might instead direct their energies towards persuading the EU to become a truly democratic organisation, capable of producing accurately audited accounts. Simon Keen Selsey, West Sussex SIR – At present, pro-Brexit momentum would be impossible to stop, let alone reverse. I live in the constituency next to Stoke Central. Of the 10 candidates in the recent by-election, only two – the Liberal Democrat and the Green – opposed Brexit. The rest were either long-term Brexiteers or recent converts.

What happens if Brexit, in whatever form it takes, goes wrong? We cannot go back as the EU is suffering from potentially fatal pressures, to which we have contributed.

We might have to start the whole European movement again, this time learning from the mistakes of the past. Margaret Brown Burslem, Staffordshire