Few answers from Corbyn on migration
Labour leader stonewalls TV interviewer five times over limits on how many people can relocate to UK
IMMIGRATION could increase under Labour, it has emerged, after Jeremy Corbyn refused to be drawn on numbers and warned: “We are in a world where a lot of people move around.”
It came as the leader pledged to broker a deal with EU nations to provide free university fees for students from the 27 other nations, triggering concerns it could prompt higher numbers of people to move to the UK.
Mr Corbyn struggled to explain the party’s immigration policy yesterday and refused to be drawn on the number of people who should be allowed to live and work in Britain, claiming arbitrary numbers “don’t work”.
This month a leaked version of Labour’s manifesto had to be toughened up when MPS warned that offering no pledge to cut the number of people moving to the UK would put voters off.
The official manifesto now commits to “fair rules” and “reasonable management” of the numbers, but there is no firm target. It falls far short of the Conservative pledge to cut net migration to the tens of thousands, although that pledge has caused problems for the Prime Minister as numbers have continued to rise.
Yesterday Damian Green, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said leaving the EU would allow the UK to have greater control over borders and immigration policy.
Labour voters in the north of the country have repeatedly expressed concern that the party is not serious about tackling migration, which has led to fears that the wages of low-paid workers are being undercut by labour from the EU and further afield. Asked whether net migration would be higher or lower under a Labour government, Mr Corbyn failed five times to set out a clear answer.
He said: “I want there to be fair immigration based on the needs of our society and that is a proper way of approaching it.”
Sophy Ridge, the Sky News presenter, responded: “That’s not quite what I asked, though, is it?”, prompting the Labour leader to add: “Well, it’s not what you’ve asked, but it’s what the Conservatives have offered in the last three elections. What I want is a society that works and what I want is fair migration. It [the number] will probably be lower, but I don’t want to start making predictions on that because the issue has to be the needs of our economy.
“I cannot get into a numbers game because I don’t think it works.”
Mr Corbyn added that the NHS is staffed by people from all over the world and said: “We’re in a world where a lot of people move around.”
Steve Baker, Conservative candidate for Wycombe, said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s position on immigration is so shambolic he can’t even tell us if it would go up or down under his leadership.
“With just over two weeks to go before the election Jeremy Corbyn still can’t tell us his policy. It is clear he has no plan to get a good Brexit deal and no plan to control immigration.”
And commenting on Mr Corbyn’s plan for free university for EU students, a Conservative campaign source said: “This shows that Labour’s plans are an utter shambles, which would lead to ordinary families paying more for their election EU giveaways.”
It came as the party descended into another row over whether a Labour government would reverse the freeze for those who rely on benefits.
The pledge was not included in Mr Corbyn’s manifesto, despite it being a central part of his promise to Labour members who backed him as a leadership candidate.
At the launch of the Labour manifesto last week Mr Corbyn said benefits would be unfrozen, but his aides later claimed this would not be the case.
Speaking yesterday Mr Corbyn said the freeze was “unfair” and “would be ended”.
But John Mcdonnell, the shadow chancellor, contradicted his leader, telling the BBC: “We’re putting £30billion in over the lifetime of a Parliament into welfare; we’re reforming the whole process... and the implication of that will be... the impact of these proposals will make the freeze irrelevant because we’ll reform the whole process.”
Mr Green said: “The way Labour approaches any problem is to say: there is a magic money tree... we don’t need to reform anything, we don’t need to change anything, we just need to take money off businesses and people and