Stuck on this island Snub to EU travel deal for young sparks fury
‘I can’t believe the government said no to it, but I feel even more betrayed by Labour’ Linda Goldsmith Retiree
‘I think both parties are misreading the public’
Elena Health worker
Elena, 35, was “flabbergasted” when she heard that both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer had dismissed a proposal by the European Commission to reintroduce freedom of movement for young people between the EU and the UK.
Last Friday, the prime minister rejected the post-Brexit youth mobility deal, which would have allowed Britons aged between 18 and 30 to live, study or work in the EU for up to four years, after Labour declined the offer the previous day.
“This scheme seems like a no-brainer – I cannot think why anyone would disagree with it,” said Elena, who works in the healthcare sector in north-east England. She dismissed concerns that people could end up trying to overstay and settle in the UK permanently.
“I have friends who have taken advantage of such schemes with Canada, Australia and New Zealand and none of them ended up moving permanently to those countries. I suspect the resistance from the Tories and Labour is based on a belief that a sizeable chunk of the British public would balk at the idea of eastern Europeans freely crossing our borders again.
“I think both parties are misreading the public – I really don’t think there is a big appetite for being anti-European.”
Hundreds of people who shared their views on the proposal with the Guardian appeared to agree with Elena, who says her employer is struggling to recruit people with fluency in a European language since Brexit.
Scores of people working in a variety of sectors including hospitality, health and social care, teaching, scientific research, technology, IT, defence, aviation, construction and the arts said their business or sector would benefit enormously from young Britons and Europeans having greater freedom of movement.
Jo Wright, 58, an architect who lives between Bath and London, said she was “furious that both Sunak and Starmer have rejected the EU offer. I run a large architecture practice and many of our team are EU citizens who thankfully stayed here after Brexit. There is a huge shortage of skills in the market and this is already impacting onnL d ondon’s status as a global centre of creative excellence.
“Reinstating freedom of movement would allow young people to embrace the opportunity to broaden their horizons and bring back some of the talent we have lost in the post-Brexit exodus.”
Roger Hardacre, 65, from Preston, in Lancashire, who retired from managing a hi-tech company in Manchester with 15 staff, also said the UK economy would benefit from easier access to Europe’s next generation of talent.
He said: “This proposal is an excellent idea. I’m retired now, but in my last job we recruited a scientist from Italy who had just got his PhD, and he was one of our key people in putting together our products – lasers.
“We interviewed him over Zoom. We said: ‘We want you, when can you start?’, and he came over within weeks. There were no fees, it was so easy and cheap to recruit from the single market. Now, you’ll have to pay a fortune to get someone from, say, Finland.”
Various young graduates from the UK said they would immediately move to a European country for work or training opportunities if freedom of movement was restored for them.
Daniel, a 21-year-old technology graduate from London working for a bank, said low pay, high taxes and an extortionate cost of living in the capital made the UK an unattractive place to spend his early career years, while northern Europe beckoned with its innovative tech scene and better public services.
“I speak German, and northern Europe is an incubator for tech startups, so I’m very interested in moving to Germany, the Netherlands or perhaps Denmark.”
Freedom of movement did not just appeal to graduates and their employers: many people said such a scheme could restart the funnelling of young baristas, waiters and au pairs into countries on either side of the Channel.
Retired social worker Linda Goldsmith, 85, of Brighton, said: “I can’t believe the government said no to it, but I feel even more betrayed by Labour on this. Dynamic young European people are lucky as they have the whole of Europe to roam around. We’re confined to this little island.”