(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

In desperate need of something – anything – to distract from events at her own party conference yesterday, Theresa May took away some of our freedom.

It was framed as a good thing – the policy we’ve all been waiting for. She sold it as a move that would take from foreigners and give to Brits.

But the reality is her post-Brexit immigration system would restrict rights we’ve enjoyed for decades. By ending free movement, our own Government is making it harder for all of us to live, love, study and work across 27 other countries.

By creating a visa system for EU tourists visiting the UK, she invites our nearest neighbours introduce similar bureaucracy for British holidaymakers.




And by building a system that discriminates between high and low-skilled migrants, she risks causing serious damage to our economy and our public services. A government-commissioned report concluded last month that each European migrant contributes £2,300 more to the exchequer each year than the average adult resident – helping to fund our health service, schools, roads and pensions.

(Photo by Jack Taylor – WPA Pool /Getty Images)

People from across the continent pick our fruit, serve our drinks and form the backbone of our NHS. If the Government goes ahead with the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendation of a minimum income threshold of £30,000 for new arrivals, three quarters of EU workers currently living in the UK would be barred from moving here.

With unemployment at its lowest rate since 1975, ministers don’t appear to have thought through who will replace the EU workers so many industries rely on.

Free movement isn’t about sacrificing ‘our’ rights in favour of ‘theirs’. It’s about a reciprocal arrangement that allows people to decide for themselves where they want to live, that enriches our communities with different culture, perspectives and food – and that supports our economy and public services.

But free movement is supposed to come with conditions. According to EU law, after three months of living in another member state, citizens must be in work, looking for work with a genuine chance of employment or have their own health insurance and be able to prove they won’t be dependent on public funds.

Inexplicably, no UK Government has ever implemented these rules – yet ministers have blamed EU immigration for decades of failures to build enough houses, fund our health service and support our schools.

Those years of scapegoating helped to ensure immigration was a key factor in the vote to leave the EU. But in places like Boston in Lincolnshire which have seen significant influxes of migrants over a relatively short time, communities do face genuine challenges.

If Theresa May was truly delivering what the public voted for, she’d be listening to people’s concerns and introducing meaningful changes to address them.

She’d be announcing a proactive integration policy designed to bring communities together. She’d create a migrant impact fund to ensure the money European workers contribute to the economy stays in their local area and funds locally-decided projects that benefit everyone. And she’d strengthen workers’ rights to stop unscrupulous employers exploiting the system.



But the fact is our Prime Minister has no idea what the people want, and no regard for what the country needs. Undeterred by rejection from the EU, the British public and even her own party, she clings to an unworkable plan for Brexit and pursues policies that threaten to make life more difficult for all of us.

We’re running out of time to regain control of our collective future. It’s time for Theresa May to trust in the public and deliver a People’s Vote with an option for us to remain in the EU and keep our right to move.

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