Labour in chaos over migration
Senior figures defy Corbyn and demand curbs
lABOUr was at war over eU immigration last night as senior MPs broke ranks with Jeremy corbyn in a desperate bid to prevent supporters backing Brexit.
in an extraordinary intervention, labour deputy leader tom Watson said the party, which championed open door immigration for years, would now demand curbs to free movement of migrants from the eU.
the panicked move follows warnings that the party is haemorrhaging support because of anger about mass immigration in labour heartlands. Mr Watson was backed by several senior figures, including former cabinet ministers ed Balls and Yvette cooper and former shadow cabinet members rachel reeves and tristram Hunt, who described levels of immigration from the eU as unsustainable.
But aides said Mr corbyn did not support curbs. A spokesman for the labour leader said he held to his view that free movement was ‘not a problem or a fear’ but an ‘opportunity’.
And prominent labour MP John Mann said calls for curbs on free movement from senior figures lacked credibility.
Mr Mann, who is campaigning to leave the eU, said: ‘While it is welcome that they are finally admitting that uncontrolled migration is a problem, the truth is that they still have no solutions. the only way to take back control of our borders and introduce an Australian style points-based immigration system is to vote to leave.’
Former labour welfare minister Frank Field said there was now a ‘dangerous gap’ between the party hierarchy and its traditional supporters on immi- gration. He added: ‘ immigration is the issue that explains why a third or more of labour voters might back Brexit.’
the row wrecked an attempt to relaunch labour’s lacklustre in campaign. Mr corbyn gathered union barons and his top team for an event that was meant to focus on the risks to the nHS of leaving the eU. But the message was quickly overshadowed by Mr Watson’s intervention on immigration. He told the BBc: ‘We have to reassure people that if they vote remain, that isn’t the end of the reform package for europe. A future europe will have to look at things like the free movement of labour rules.’ Asked if a labour administra- tion would suggest a control on the numbers coming to the UK, he said: ‘i think it’s very likely that a labour government would want to reform the european Union and yes, if we get to a general election in 2020, of course we would have to listen to our voters.
‘they’re giving us a pretty clear signal in this referendum, and we should be listening.’
Miss reeves said: ‘this referendum is a wake-up call to the eU, to the British Government that things have to be done differently on freedom of movement.’ Mr Hunt said ‘the status quo is unsustainable’, while Mr Balls added: ‘We need to press europe to restore proper borders.’ Miss cooper said Britain should vote to stay in the eU and then push ‘to develop new... brakes to manage economic migration’, adding: ‘ignoring the problem doesn’t work.’
last night, in signs of increasing desperation in the remain camp, it was claimed that Downing Street is considering a last-ditch plea to Brussels for curbs on free movement.
However no 10 insiders are concerned that such a lastminute pledge would not be credible with voters and the chances of support from eU leaders are remote, the Guardian reported. Don’t take us for fools, George:
‘We need to restore proper borders’
JEREMY Corbyn stood on some steps in the capital, surrounded by senior colleagues. Had they only been in togas, they could have given us a riveting performance of the assassination scene in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Et tu, Andy/Hilary/Gloria/Charlie/Chris? Chief Whip Rosie Winterton (little trusted by the party leadership) had been placed just in front of Jeremy Caesar. His aides had not wanted her standing behind him with a view of his shoulder blades. Miss Winterton made a great show of loyalty. She clapped and clapped and clapped him, well after most people had downed hands. It’s okay, Rosie, dear, you can stop now.
Yesterday’s Labour team photo – how they grinned! How they stretched their waxen masks into expressions of creamy delight! – was called to promote the Remain in Europe campaign. Opinion polls suggest that Labour supporters are refusing to heed the Establishment view on the EU. And so a publicity push is under way. Yesterday’s event at the TUC headquarters in London was part of that. They were desperate for people to vote for Brussels.
Labour spin doctors are realistic enough to see that a normal Corbyn speech (he made two yesterday – they’re like tardy buses) is unlikely to win much media coverage. He is not a scintillating orator. But if they could organise a group snapshot, a ‘coming together at Congress House’, as it was phrased in faintly biological language, that might earn a few column inches and a second or two on TV news bulletins.
Mr Corbyn was surrounded by the Shadow Cabinet, trade union leaders and Labour’s national executive committee. Union heavy Len McCluskey was in the front row, showing off some amazingly shiny shoes. Does someone polish them for him or does he do it himself?
Tony Blair’s old flat-mate Lord Falconer, these days skinny and bearded, joshed with an insistent jollity. Luciana Berger, who wants to be mayor of Liverpool, had secured a prominent position for herself. She’s good at that.
Former GMTV reporter Gloria de Piero had turned up in a dress so tight, she may well have been vacuum-packed. Yet she was ushered to a distant spot, behind a youth representative in a red T-shirt. Poor Gloria. If she’d only stayed in telly she could have been presenting Antiques Roadshow by now. Think of the money she could be making.
Looking at the lineup of Mr
Corbyn and his top team ‘ coming together’, I found it hard to remain serious. Some of these people, behind the scenes, are witheringly rude about his leadership. I saw at least two characters who, in private, have in the pithiest words told me they think Mr Corbyn is a disaster for their party. Yet they somehow found it in themselves yesterday to nod like connoisseurs while Mr Corbyn bumbled through ‘ a few words’ about the marvels of the EU.
HE had arrived flanked by deputy leader Tom Watson and Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander. Neither of those, let us say, could ever be mistaken for the fly-away slimming girl in the Nimble bread adverts. A stranger seeing Mr Corbyn’s arrival might have thought he was being escorted to a waiting prison van by a couple of G4S security personnel.
Afterwards, we all had to troop upstairs to the fifth-floor council chamber where further speeches were made. These were compered by an American woman from Equity, the actors’ union. She made the room practise its whooping and placardwaving before Mr Corbyn reappeared with TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady. Ms O’Grady deplored Leave for running a negative campaign.
Having said that, she promptly claimed that the Leave leaders ‘don’t give a toss about the NHS’. She compared them to Dracula. ‘Fibbers, fakes and phoneys,’ she added. Union leader Dave Prentis attacked Leave as ‘the privatising Tories and Ukip’. This was all lively knockabout stuff. But it did not really address the concerns of Labour supporters who want to Leave. Immigration was barely mentioned.