Philip Hammond urges firms to lobby for soft post-Brexit immigration rules for EU migrants
The Chancellor risked fresh uproar after telling business chiefs to 'seize the opportunity' to push for special treatment for Euro nationals
PHILIP HAMMOND has urged business chiefs to lobby for softer post-Brexit immigration rules for EU migrants.
Risking fresh Brexit uproar, the Chancellor urged firms to “seize the opportunity” to push for special treatment for Euro nationals.
Speaking at a lunch in Davos he also hinted a future trade deal with Brussels could make a “provision in this area”.
The comments fly in the face of Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s desire to end preferential treatment for EU citizens after Brexit.
And they reflect the bitter Cabinet row in the run-up to the publication of the Government’s immigration white paper at the end of December.
Theresa May was said to be in a “majority of one” for pushing to end low-skilled migration into Brexit Britain.
After lobbying from the Treasury, the white paper details that any migrant will be able come to Britain to look for work for up to five years after Brexit.
MOST READ IN BREXIT
Mr Hammond told business leaders yesterday: “Free movement is ending but the detail on what replaces it remains to be decided.
“So I urge you, collectively, seize the opportunity to engage with this consultation and to bring forward constructive, consistent, and evidence-based proposals.”
Migration Watch co-founder Andrew Green stormed: “The Chancellor appears to have missed the very strong public desire to see immigration significantly reduced.”
THE SUN SAYS: FEEBLE PHIL
WHAT did Britain do to deserve a Cabinet this spineless?
It is VITAL to keep No Deal alive and Theresa May knows it.
Otherwise the EU has no incentive to fix her deal to get it through the Commons. The very existence of the Labour-backed Yvette Cooper amendment to “avoid No Deal” — a Remainer ruse to kill Brexit — threatens our position.
So what possessed our idiotic Chancellor Philip Hammond to tell his big business buddies at Davos that No Deal would “betray” the referendum result?
It’s both Grade A cobblers and pulls the rug from under his boss.
The Business Department, meanwhile, appears to have asked Airbus to make dire public warnings about No Deal, while europhile Minister Richard Harrington openly dared Mrs May to fire him for branding it a “total disaster”.
Amber Rudd is at it too.
Remainers have abandoned collective Cabinet responsibility and made their Government look even more feeble.
Tory MP, ex-Army officer and Afghanistan veteran Johnny Mercer knows vastly more than these Cabinet clowns about achieving difficult objectives with teamwork, loyalty and courage. He describes it well on the right.
This Cabinet should work as one to fix the Irish backstop which is scuppering the deal. If that fails, No Deal it still is. If they haven’t the stomach for it, quit.
The public is repulsed by their manoeuvres and plots.
- GOT a story? Ring The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or email [email protected].