CORBYN: EU MIGRATION ISN’T TOO HIGH

... But he still admits it has forced wages down

IMMIGRATION from Europe is not too high, even though EU membership has allowed ‘migrant labour to undercut wages’, Jeremy Corbyn said yesterday.

As he gave his lukewarm backing to Britain’s EU membership, the Labour leader said there was ‘nothing wrong with people migrating to work around the Continent’. And he did not believe ‘too many people’ had come to the UK.

The Labour leader conceded that EU membership allowed ‘migrant labour to undercut wages’, but insisted this was the fault of big businesses ‘exploiting’ migrant workers and the Government’s failure to invest in training British workers.

The Labour leader has been under intense pressure from his MPs to speak out in favour of the EU.

In a speech in London yesterday, he finally gave Brussels his grudging endorsement, saying people should vote to stay in the EU ‘warts and all’ – even though it lacks democratic accountability.

In 1975, he voted to leave the Common Market, and yesterday he was forced to deny his support had been ‘half-hearted’. And he said he did not ‘recant on everything I’ve ever said and done’ on the EU issue, but was fighting for the chance to change it from within.

Mr Corbyn said leaving the EU would result in a ‘bonfire of rights that Labour governments secured within the EU’. He added: ‘Not only that, it wouldn’t be a Labour government negotiating a better settlement for working people with the EU. It would be a Tory government, quite possibly led by Boris Johnson and backed by Nigel Farage, that would negotiate the worst of all worlds: a free market free-for-all shorn of rights and protections.’

Eurosceptic Labour MP Kate Hoey said Labour voters would ‘see through’ Mr Corbyn’s speech, adding: ‘I don’t believe Jeremy has gone back on all his views at all about what he thought about the EU. He doesn’t really mean it, no matter how much he tries to pretend he does.’

Tory MP Sir Bill Cash accused Mr Corbyn of abandoning his principles by making a pro-EU speech after a lifetime of Euroscepticism.

Mr Cash said: ‘This is very damaging for Jeremy Corbyn. He has abandoned his principled democratic opposition to the EU. He got his support from being principled and consistent and now he has abandoned that on the European question – he is discredited.’

David Cameron, who needs Labour votes to win the referendum, said: ‘I absolutely welcome Jeremy Corbyn’s intervention. There are lots of things we disagree about, between Labour, Liberals, Greens and others, but the fact is we all come together to support the idea of Britain staying in a reformed European Union.’

Annual net migration now stands at more than 300,000, in large part thanks to the Government’s inability to reduce the number of EU migrants because of Brussels’ freedom of movement rules. Asked about voters’ concerns on immigration after his speech, Mr Corbyn said that if wages were being undercut, it was the fault of exploitative employers.

He suggested the answer could be an EU-wide minimum wage, tied to the cost of living in each EU member state. ‘I don’t think too many [migrants] have come,’ he said. ‘The issue has to be of wages and regulations. It is employers that try to undercut industry-wide agreements in the construction industry and others that are the problem.

‘There has to be a case for a minimum wage tied to the cost of living all across the continent.

‘There is nothing wrong with people migrating to work around the continent but there has to be a level playing field on pay and conditions.’

Answering criticism of his lukewarm support for the EU, he said: ‘There is nothing half-hearted about what we are doing, there is nothing half-hearted about our campaign, there is nothing half-hearted about our alliances.’

Britain must swallow EU law and comply with edicts from European judges, an official government report made clear last night.

The document set out how this country is ‘obliged’ to comply with laws handed down by Brussels – and how decisions by EU judges over-ride the UK courts.

The report was put up on a government website without fanfare yesterday. Previous reports in the series which have been more helpful to the Government’s case for Britain to remain in the EU have been trumpeted by ministers. The document was seized on by Brexit campaigners who said it showed how EU law was undermining UK sovereignty.

Comment – Page 16

‘He has abandoned his principles’