Border controls our PM must not ignore
NOTHING has done more to undermine trust in politicians than their lamentable failure, despite cynical and oft-repeated promises, to get a grip on immigration.
Voters know from bitter experience that when too many people are allowed to settle in this country, the result is downward pressure on wages and intolerable strain on public services, including health, housing and schools. That is why David Cameron’s broken electoral pledge to bring net migration below 100,000 has done so much to damage his reputation.
So with the news dominated by reports of shambolic border control everywhere from the Channel to the Mediterranean, it’s no surprise the opinion polls have shown a marked move in favour of Brexit.
Last night, a poll (for the Guardian of all papers) actually gave the Leave campaign a narrow lead. For voters are realising in increasing numbers that on referendum day, they will have a once-ina- generation chance to wrest back authority over who comes into Britain. With admirable timing, the Leave campaign today unveils a sober proposal to tackle this mess once and for all by introducing an Australian-style pointsbased immigration system which will allow us to admit migrants according to Britain’s needs.
At present, EU citizens have the right to move here regardless of whether their skills are in short supply, and indeed without so much as the offer of a job: last year, 77,000 of them arrived simply in order to look for work.
But for the rest of the world, including Commonwealth countries such as India and Canada, a points-based system already applies. This in-built bias in favour of EU citizens (three-quarters of whom, according to a recent Oxford University study, would not qualify) is grotesquely unfair, against our national interest and must not be allowed to continue.
Of course, to reject all immigration would be the height of folly. Our country has for generations been enriched by the arrival of people with exceptional abilities in science, culture, business, engineering and other fields, our universities depend greatly on fee-paying foreign students, and our health service has long been reliant on immigrant workers.
The starting point must always, however, be a clear assessment of the needs and capacity of this country. Only then can we decide which prospective immigrants to admit, and in what numbers. In the three weeks between now and referendum day, Brexit campaigners will doubtless go on reminding voters that only by extricating ourselves from the EU can we restore that vital control. Mr Cameron and the Remain campaign don’t want to discuss migration because they know it’s toxic to their cause. They must not be allowed to get away with it.