Well Duh!!

by Virginia Hale24 Jul 20170
A Labour government would leave the Single Market, Jeremy Corbyn has claimed, admitting that European Union (EU) freedom of movement rules have damaged workers’ conditions.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr programme, the Labour leader ruled out staying in the Single Market because it was “inextricably linked” to EU membership, saying the country should seek a tariff-free trade deal instead.

Asked about his party’s attitude to EU immigration after Brexit, Corbyn claimed Labour would put a stop to the “wholesale importation of low-paid workers from central Europe,” admitting that this “destroys conditions” for British workers in industries like construction.

In the interview, Corbyn said he would put a stop to the practice of agencies advertising jobs in central Europe, and force them to “advertise in the locality first” – an approach barred by Brussels rules which deem this a form of discrimination.

“What we wouldn’t allow is this practice by agencies, who are quite disgraceful they way they do it – recruit a workforce, low paid – and bring them here in order to dismiss an existing workforce in the construction industry, then pay them low wages.

“It’s appalling. And the only people who benefit are the companies,” he told Marr.

Corbyn’s admission that open borders with Europe has been bad news for British workers comes not long after the historically europhile GMB union conceded that mass migration results in the “pay, terms, conditions and job security of British workers” being “undercut” – noting that this is a “basic issue of supply and demand”.

“Time and again we hear from GMB members that they have been told by their bosses ‘if you don’t want to do this job for this amount of money, there are 20 EU workers who will’,” stated a report on Brexit, published by the union last month.

Noting issues such as “umbrella companies using migrant workers to undercut national pay rates” and “EU agency workers being recruited abroad to act as a replacement for what should be permanent jobs”, GMB called on the government to invest in education and training for British workers, and bring “an end to migrant workers being used as a direct replacement for UK workers, which is a commonly accepted principle with non-EU migration.”