Implementing existing migration rules properly and pushing for EU reform would tighten controls without trashing the UK in a destructive Brexit. That is the message from Tony Blair today, in the second high-profile intervention by a former prime minister this week.
EU citizens help staff our hospitals, keep our economy humming, and pay more in taxes than they take out in welfare. Brexit has seen these people leaving in droves. Meanwhile, problems people care about most – the NHS, jobs, the cost of living – are getting worse.
Brexit is clearly not the answer. Thankfully there are three ways to ease people’s concerns over free movement without pulling out of the EU, some of which Blair mentions.
The first is to use all the existing wiggle room in the free movement rules. Other countries are much better at managing migration from other EU states. Blair gave the example of Belgium where EU nationals staying more than three months have to register at their local town hall in his interview with the BBC’s Today programme (listen from 1:38). This makes it easier to enforce rules allowing countries to expel EU citizens after three months if they don’t have a job and cannot support themselves.
EU nationals can also be expelled in the event of fraud or serious crimes. There’s also nothing in EU law giving recent migrants without a job the right to any benefits classed as “social assistance”, such as housing benefit or income support. The UK could move more benefits into this category. Neither can EU citizens just pitch up and start claiming unemployment benefit or jump queues for social housing. Simply making all this clear would help allay public concerns.
Second, the government can change its own policies. Jeremy Corbyn mentioned a few ways in his speech this week, including cracking down on exploitative employers paying cheap wages to foreign workers or reintroducing government-funded English language courses. Other possible measures include: banning companies from recruiting exclusively abroad; training more Brits and thus lowering the demand for foreign workers; and putting more resources into cracking down dangerous criminals entering the country.
The government could also reintroduce a revamped version of Gordon Brown’s Migration Impact Fund, easing pressure on public services and housing in areas experiencing high levels of migration.
Finally, the UK can push for reform from inside the EU. This is increasingly appealing to European governments, with public concern about immigration high across the EU. The UK would have a key ally in Emmanuel Macron, the French president who is pushing reforms to the EU’s so-called Posted Workers Directive, under which European citizens can be posted to other countries and undercut local wages and conditions.
For too long successive UK governments have mismanaged migration, failing to address local pressures and allowing a culture of scapegoating to take root. But Brexit is not the answer. We can address people’s legitimate concerns about free movement without trashing our country in the process.