Boris Johnson’s plan for a new immigration system blocking low-skilled workers from the UK has been branded “toxic” by Labour, while businesses and unions have warned it would be “irresponsible” to shut the door on 140,000 workers from the EU.
Home secretary Priti Patel – who conceded in a LBC interview her own parents may not have been allowed in under the new rules – has defended Mr Johnson after he was called “a real racist” by rapper Dave at last night’s BRIT Awards. “He is not a racist at all,” she said.
It comes as the former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke has warned that “exotic aide” Dominic Cummings can only survive in his powerful role at No 10 if he “vanishes” from the headlines.
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McDonnell will visit Assange
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell is set to visit Julian Assange in prison tomorrow, only days before the start of his extradition hearing, according to a campaign team working for the WikiLeaks founder’s release.
After weeks of battling with the prison authorities in order to be allowed to visit, McDonnell will be the first British MP to gain access to Assange at HMP Belmarsh.
The Labour MP recently lead a public rally for Assange, while Jeremy Corbyn asked Boris Johnson to halt the extradition proceedings at PMQs.
Farmers union warns of ‘severe impact’ from loss of low-skilled workers
Farmers have urged the government to allow tens of thousands of seasonal migrant workers to come to the UK to harvest fruit and vegetable crops.
Leaders in the sector have also raised concerns that many people from abroad who work full-time, for example on poultry farms, will not meet the thresholds for work visas set out in the new immigration policy.
Last season there were reports of fruit and veg rotting in the fields due to a shortage of pickers and packers from abroad to harvest them in the face of Brexit uncertainty.
The number of temporary workers farms can recruit from outside the EU under the seasonal workers scheme has been increased to 10,000 for the coming season, up from 2,500, which the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said would ease some of the pressure this year.
But the NFU urged the government to commit to a full scheme for 2021, so growers can recruit the 70,000 seasonal workers needed on British fruit, vegetable and flower farms.
NFU president Minette Batters said: “We have said repeatedly that for farm businesses it is about having the full range of skills needed – from pickers and packers to meat processors and vets – if we are to continue to deliver high-quality, affordable food for the public.
“Failure to provide an entry route for these jobs will severely impact the farming sector.”
Ministers fear Cummings’ approach ‘unsustainable’, report claims
Dominic Cummings hates ministers speaking out on an anonymous basis – he had hoped to reign that in with the cabinet reshuffle.
So he won’t be happy that ministers are speaking out on an anonymous basis that Boris Johnson needs to “reign in” his powerful adviser.
One senior minister told BuzzFeed News the PM must “reign in” Cummings and “half the cabinet” are struggling to work with him since the general election victory.
Others warned his management style and methods at No 10 and are “unsustainable” and “untenable”.
It comes as ex-Tory chancellor Ken Clarke warns Cummings will only survive in his powerful role if he “vanishes” from the headlines.
Labour asks PM to explain why Andrew Sabisky was hired
Labour has written to the prime minister asking him if he agreed with a former aide’s controversial views on eugenics, black people and forced contraception.
Party chiefs have also called for answers on how Andrew Sabisky, who resigned this week after his “offensive” past writings were discovered online, came to be hired to work in Downing Street.
Ministers said Sabisky “jumped before he was pushed”, but Labour has demanded answers about how such a figure came to be employed by Downing Street.
Party chair Ian Lavery, in his letter to Boris Johnson demanding more information on the level of vetting involved, wrote: “Andrew Sabisky has thankfully left your government. However, the disturbing nature of his previous comments on eugenics, race and women, which have been well documented in the press, raise very serious concerns about your own views.
“Furthermore, there are unanswered questions about how somehow with such abhorrent views was ever considered for employment in the first place.”
Canada-style deal? UK is ‘different ball game’, says EU official
The EU’s trade agreement with Canada was a “different ball game” to the type of relationship Brussels wants with the UK, one of chief negotiator Michel Barnier’s senior aides said.
Stefaan De Rynck said the closer relationship with the UK – in terms of distance and the amount of trade – explained Brussels’s commitment to “level playing field” measures aimed at preventing Britain undercutting standards in future.
Boris Johnson’s government is focused on striking a Canada-style free-trade deal which will allow the UK to diverge from EU rules from January 2021.
“It’s clear that for us it’s a different ball game that we are playing with the UK to the one that we agreed with Canada in terms of the level playing field,” De Rynck said.
Speaking at the London School of Economics, he said: “Some in the UK now seem to want to become Canadians. But Dover is much closer to Calais than Ottawa is.”
Scotland needs its own immigration plan, say Sturgeon
Government plans to introduce a new points-based immigration system will be “devastating” for Scotland, the first minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned.
The SNP leader tweeted: “It is impossible to overstate how devastating this UK gov policy will be for Scotland’s economy. Our demographics mean we need to keep attracting people here – this makes it so much harder. Getting power over migration in ScotParl is now a necessity for our future prosperity.”
She also said the idea of blocking “low-skilled” workers was “offensive in principle” and “disastrous in practice”.
Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, claimed UK ministers were “in cloud cuckoo land” while the Scottish Tourism Alliance branded the plans “the biggest threat to Scotland’s tourism industry”.
Ben Macpherson, the Scottish government’s migration minister, accused the Conservative government of “engaging in dog-whistle politics”.
The proposals, which will bring about the end of freedom of movement for people, are “incredibly worrying and concerning”, he said.
Patel admits parents may not have been allowed into UK under her new rules
Home secretary Priti Patel has been forced to concede in an interview on LBC radio that her own parents may not have been allowed into the UK under the immigration rules she and the government is now proposing.
Host Nick Ferrari asked: “Your parents as I understand came from Uganda and then were very successful in setting up newsagents. They wouldn’t have qualified, would they?”
“This is a very different system to what has gone on in the past,” she replied.
Pressed again on it, she said: “The policies are changing – we are changing our immigration policy.”
No 10 insists on ‘sovereignty’ after Barnier’s rebuff
Michel Barnier offered Boris Johnson some bad news on Tuesday, claiming a “Canada-style” free trade deal is not going to happen.
The EU’s chief negotiator said our “economic closeness” means a potential agreement “can’t be compared to Canada”. Brussels remains insistent on so-called level playing field rules to prevent British companies getting the chance to undercut EU rivals.
The No 10 press office responded with a tweet: “In 2017 the EU showed on their own slide that a Canada type FTA was the only available relationship for the UK. Now they say it’s not on offer after all. Michel Barnier, what’s changed?”
This morning the press office has shared UK negotiator David Frost’s recent lecture, saying “sovereignty” means setting “rules for our own benefit”.
Baroness Warsi backs Dave after rapper called PM ‘racist’
The former Tory party chairwoman has backed rapper after he branded Boris Johnson “a real racist” – calling it “a necessary wake-up call”.
Baroness Warsi tweeted her support for Dave after he added a surprise verse to his track Black, which said “the truth is our prime minister’s a real racist.”
Describing Dave’s appearance as “powerful”, the Tory peer said: “After the appalling appointment of #Sabisky and the shameful lack of condemnation this week from No 10 this performance felt like a necessary wake-up call in the most provocative way.”
PM ‘not a racist’, says home secretary
Home secretary Priti Patel has denied that Boris Johnson is “a racist” after the London rapper Dave made the claim during his performance at last night’s BRIT Awards.
Patel told BBC Breakfast: “He’s absolutely not a racist and I’m afraid that is very much a generalisation that has been made by rapper Dave, and I just disagree with it.
“I work with the prime minister, I know Boris Johnson very well, no way is he a racist, so I think that is a completely wrong comment and it’s the wrong assertion to make against our prime minister.”
She also told Sky News: “That’s utter nonsense, it really is. I don’t know what those comments are based on … He is not a racist at all. I just think those comments are highly inappropriate.”
Dave’s newly-penned verse attacked the government’s response to Grenfell and included the line: “The truth is our prime minister is a real racist.”
‘Exotic aide’ Dominic Cummings must keep out of spotlight to stay in No 10 role, says Tory grandee
Former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke has warned that Dominic Cummings can only survive in No 10 if he “vanishes” from the headlines.
The veteran said powerful aides “don’t normally dress exotically and pose for the photographers before giving – quite blatantly – briefings all over the place” and said Cummings must return to being a “back room operator” if he wants to remain in his role.
Clarke, who served under Margaret Thatcher, John Major and David Cameron, questioned whether the PM’s top aide “loves the vast amount of publicity he’s getting but he’s in newspapers more than the prime minister” – a situation traditionally regarded as “absolute disaster”.
He told ITV News Acting Prime Minister podcast: “You can’t govern a country and explain what you’re doing for the public by the medium of leaks from an exotic aide in No 10.”
‘Irresponsible’ and ‘xenophobic’: Businesses and opposition parties respond to immigration plan
Changes to the UK’s immigration rules could “spell absolute disaster” for the care system and risk farmers, builders and hospitality businesses being hit the hardest, industry leaders have warned.
The government came under fire after deciding it will not offer visas to low-skilled migrant workers after Brexit and urging businesses to move away from reliance on “cheap labour from Europe”.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned care, construction, hospitality, food and drink companies could be most affected by the changes. Unison assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said the plans “spell absolute disaster for the care sector”.
The UK Homecare Association said it was “dismayed” by the government’s decision, adding: “Cutting off the supply of prospective careworkers under a new migration system will pave the way for more people waiting unnecessarily in hospital or going without care. Telling employers to adjust, in a grossly underfunded care system, is simply irresponsible.”
National Farmers’ Union president Minette Batters expressed “serious concerns” about the government’s “failure to recognise British food and farming’s needs” in the proposals. Mark Harrison, of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), raised concerns about bakers, meat processors and workers producing food like cheese and pasta not qualifying under the new regime.
The Liberal Democrats claimed the proposals were based on “xenophobia” and not the “social and economic needs of our country”.
Labour: immigration plans ‘toxic’ and ‘dog-whistle’ politics
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has claimed that ministers have not fully considered the impact that a new immigration policy will have on the UK’s economy.
She told BBC Breakfast: “One of the problems is the salary threshold they’re talking of, it’s as if they think that the level of your salary determines how valuable your role is and what skills you have, but we know that there are people in relatively low-paid occupations like social care who are skilled and valuable, and their new system may keep these people out and without social care workers from the EU, social care, for instance in London, would be absolutely in a very difficult position.”
Asked about the requirement to speak English, Abbott said: “I don’t think that’s a real issue, that’s dog-whistle politics”.
The target set to bring immigration down, she said, “has been proved to be completely bogus”, adding: “I think we start with what is good for the economy, what our values as a society are. This idea of trying to hit (a) numeric target, it hasn’t worked, it won’t work.”
She added: “I think there’s going to have to be a lot of exemptions, a lot of exceptions. I think this policy is going to turn into a muddle and yet it sends a very clear message that immigration is a bad thing, and I think that’s a toxic message to send.”
Abbott also told Sky News that Labour “won’t play the Tories’ dog-whistle politics.”
Tory immigration plan will shut out 140,000 EU workers
The new immigration rules to be set out in detail today by home secretary Priti Patel could shut the door on 140,000 workers from the EU – and citizens from the continent may have to provide their fingerprints.
The Home Office has floated the hardline proposal as part of a “firm and fair” post-Brexit crackdown that will replace free movement with a minimum salary threshold of £25,600 for most workers.
However, ministers are unable to estimate the overall level of future migration – after relaxing salary and skills rules for non-EU migrants – despite insisting they “will reduce” it.
Patel hailed the shake-up as “a historic moment for the whole country”, bringing immigration policy back under UK control “for the first time in decades”.
But the plans have already been branded “a disaster” by social care leader, fearing a deepening recruitment crisis, although the social care sector could yet be added to the shortage list.
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