Care for the many

In criticising Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn for saying he wishes to negotiate a single market deal with the EU instead of accepting the existing single market terms as the SNP wish to do, Mary Thomas (Letters, 10 March) effectively says that the views and aspirations of the thousands of Scots who voted for Brexit, including thousands of SNP supporters, count for nothing.

Staying in the single market means accepting the freedom of movement rules. One of the principal reasons for Brexit was immigration.

Too many employers used the freedom of movement rules to cut their training bills and replace the locally educated teenager with the keen as mustard EU graduate who speaks excellent English.

In Scotland’s NHS, Nicola Sturgeon cut the training budget for nurses and midwives and already-trained nurses were recruited from the EU.

The much-needed reform of further education was postponed.

Whilst immigration from the EU has been advantageous for many, for others, particularly at the bottom, the result has been a mixture of unemployment, insecure work and zero hours contracts.

According to the latest Labour Force statistics, whilst unemployment in Scotland is around 4.5 per cent, the youth unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds is more than double, at 10.3 per cent. In the UK, the rate is 12.1 per cent. There are also about 400,000 ‘neets’, that is, not in employment, education or training. The economic inactivity rate in Scotland was 22 per cent.

What a scandalous waste, no wonder that many said freedom of movement was not working for them, and voted Leave. Brexit and the with- drawal from the single market is likely to prove an unmitigated disaster, and put the jobs and livelihoods of millions at risk. A negotiated single market deal as proposed by Jeremy Corbyn could, however, provide the best of both worlds – access to the single market prioritising jobs and living standards, and employers forced to recruit locally. In the words of Gordon Brown, British jobs for British workers – employers forced to train, employers forced to offer good, well-paid jobs, and the Government properly funding further education, and vocational and technical training.

Labour caring for the many, not the few. What a contrast with the SNP, who are saying to those at the bottom that freedom of movement trumps everything and they will just have to get used to it.

PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh