Senior Labour figure admits the free movement of people ‘hasn’t worked’ for millions of Britons
Clive Lewis says employers should not be able to undercut the wages of local workers by hiring people from overseas
A SENIOR Labour figure has admitted the free movement of people across the EU “hasn’t worked” for millions of Britons.
Clive Lewis said employers should not be able to undercut the wages of local workers by hiring foreign employees.
The Shadow Business Secretary said firms who bring in people from overseas should have to negotiate with a trade union make sure UK staff don’t lose out.
Mr Lewis told the the party should “show leadership” over immigration, in contrast to Mr Corbyn who has repeatedly said there is no need for controls on people coming to Britain.
He said: “We have to acknowledge that free movement of labour hasn’t worked for a lot of people.
“It hasn’t worked for many of the people in this country, where they’ve been undercut, who feel insecure, who feel they’re not getting any of the benefits that immigration has clearly had in our economy.”
The shadow cabinet member said Labour needed to try and respond to voters’ concerns by moving to underpin workers’ rights.
He said: “What we’re going to say to business is, you want to have access to the single market?
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“We’re prepared to champion that for you – but you have to accept that on the other side of the coin, the way business has been done, the way that the economy has been run, has led us to this place; has led people to feel insecure, to feel, ‘Stop the world, I want to get off’.
“There’s a quid pro quo: you have to give workers more job security; better terms and conditions; recognise trade unions.
“It will have an impact on the number of people coming to this country, if you make it more difficult for employers to bring people in, to undercut people.”
Mr Lewis, who is seen as a potential future Labour leader, called for the party to reinvent an outward-looking English nationalism for the 21st century.
And he echoed the claim from fellow senior Labour figure Emily Thornberry that Donald Trump’s victory was driven by similar forces which helped Mr Corbyn win the his own leadership contest.
“Trump and Brexit, I think, are linked to the same thing: a deep insecurity about globalisation, about some of its negative effects; but also the insecurity that is based on inequality, and people’s lives changing at such a rapid rate of knots, and [that] the traditional safety nets that have been there – the welfare state – have been hacked away,” he said.