‘Avoid appalling language’ in migration debate, says influential MP

CABINET MINISTERS must take care over how they discuss immigration as the Brexit debate intensifies, to avoid the “shocking and appalling” tone of the EU referendum campaign, the Commons Home Affairs Committee chair has said.

West Yorkshire MP Yvette Cooper said everyone has a responsibility to use measured language in the debate about migration as the date for departure from the EU gets closer and feelings in the country heat up.

Ms Cooper spoke as Theresa May chaired a Cabinet meeting on post-Brexit immigration policy, during which Ministers were briefed by Migration Advisory Committee chairman Professor Alan Manning.

MAC last week recommended that EU nationals should not be given special treatment compared to the rest of the world after Brexit, and that the UK should tighten up migration routes for low-skilled migrants but relax the rules for people with high-skills.

But Ms Cooper said there was a “massive gap” between the evidence used by MAC in its report and the recommendations, criticising the study for failing to recognise that Britain may have to grant EU nationals more favourable immigration status to secure a better trade deal.

Meanwhile, she expressed her concern about the migration debate, telling a fringe event at Labour Party Conference in Liverpool: “I’m am very worried that as the Brexit debate becomes more heated over the next couple of months that people will start exploiting immigration again.

“And we will see as we saw Nigel Farage’s frankly shocking, appalling posters that we saw that were frankly exploiting people who were fleeing persecution, not actually a debate about immigration at all.

“And my plea to people in the Cabinet who are going to have most responsibility for this, but also to everybody across the country, is to actually be much more thoughtful and responsible about what language you use in the debate about migration over the next few months as we debate Brexit than we were the last time round.”