Labour chiefs in disarray over free movement
FREE movement could continue under Labour’s Brexit plans, the party’s campaign chief said yesterday – despite a 2017 election pledge to end it.
Andrew Gwynne said Labour would seek to negotiate ‘bespoke reciprocal arrangements’ that would allow people to continue travelling freely between Britain and the EU.
In 2017, Labour pledged to end free movement in a bid to shore up support in Leave-voting seats. But at the party’s annual conference in September, delegates voted to ‘ maintain and extend free movement’ regardless of whether Britain left the EU.
Mr Gwynne yesterday indicated that a battle was still raging within Labour’s high command about whether to reverse the party’s 2017 position and back the continuation of free movement in all circumstances.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Gwynne was unable to say whether the new policy would be translated into Labour’s manifesto, which is due to be published in the next ten days. Asked directly if Labour was still committed to ending free movement, he said: ‘I’ll be able to answer that more clearly this time next week. I’ve not seen a draft of the manifesto’
Last week, Jeremy Corbyn indicated that he wanted free movement to continue, telling an audience in Telford, Shropshire: ‘There has to be that movement of people. I want our young people to be brought up in a world where they can travel, they can experience other societies, they can make their contribution there.
‘And you know what? That enriches their lives and enriches the lives of all of us. I want to make sure that all those EU nationals do remain here, can come here, will stay here.’
Home Secretary Priti Patel said Mr Gwynne’s comments demonstrated that Labour could not be trusted to bring immigration under control. She added: ‘ For the second time in a week, Corbyn’s Labour have confirmed they want to see uncontrolled and unlimited immigration, whatever the results of the two chaotic referendums they want to hold next year.
‘The choice at this election is between a Conservative majority government that will get Brexit done and deliver on the people’s priorities like controlling immigration, or a weak coalition headed by Corbyn in a gridlocked
Parliament that refuses to control immigration.’
The final decision on whether to support the end of free movement is set to be one of the key battles of Labour’s manifesto meeting next weekend.
Labour says it will negotiate a new Brexit deal and then put it to a second referendum, although it has been unable to say whether it would back Leave or Remain. If it makes a manifesto commitment to continue free movement, voters in the second referendum would be left without an option to bring immigration from the EU under control.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has said he wants to see ‘as much free movement as possible’. But Labour candidates in some seats in the Midlands and the North, where the party is being pushed hard by the Tories, fear that a pledge to continue free movement would play badly with Leave voters.
Mr Gwynne, whose Denton and Reddish seat in Greater Manchester voted 61 per cent to 39 per cent to leave in 2016, has previously warned on the need to control immigration, saying: ‘A lot of my constituents voted for Leave because they wanted to end what they saw as people coming from other parts of the EU taking their jobs, lowering their wages and living standards, and I understood those concerns.’
Yesterday, he insisted that his view had not changed, adding: ‘I absolutely do understand those concerns, and you know the way that you deal with those concerns is that you lift up the playing field so that my constituents benefit.’
Mr Gwynne indicated that he would like to end up with a policy that stopped short of free movement, saying: ‘I’ve been very clear, we are looking at reciprocal agreements with the EU 27 that allows British citizens to enjoy some of the freedoms that they will lose as a result of Brexit.’
‘Uncontrolled and unlimited’