AFTER a week of hysteria and headline-grabbing rhetoric about Rwanda and efforts to reform our overwhelmed and abused asylum system, Migration Watch has justifiably accused the Prime Minister of reverting to form with his promises to expand visa routes from India in exchange for a trade deal.
‘Taking back control,’ it states, ‘has turned out to be little more than flummery, at least in respect to immigration control’. Salary and education thresholds have been reduced, companies are no longer required to prioritise British workers and the annual cap on work permits has gone. In fact, it is easier for people in 80 per cent of the world’s countries to come here and work – with less control for them than before.
It goes on to say: ‘Despite Boris Johnson promising the British public that he would honour the Brexit vote by delivering firmer borders and lower inflows at the last election, the post-Brexit immigration changes have driven a huge rise in immigration from outside the EU – with nearly a million people coming either on long-term visas or permits being permanently resettled or seeking asylum here in 2021 – possibly the most ever and during a year when international travel was severely restricted. Now, with polling showing that the government is failing on handling immigration, with seven in ten voters dissatisfied with the government’s record, the Prime Minister is pledging to open yet more routes, this time from India. With an ever-deepening cost-of-living crisis, skyrocketing inflation and rising taxes and housing costs, one does question the PM’s priorities. What matters more: boosting corporate profits or protecting the job opportunities and pay levels of British workers?’
Migration Watch also reminds us that Johnson was being economical with the truth when he said in January that net migration has gone down since Brexit. Others would be less kind and say he downright lied:
‘In January, the Prime Minister told Parliament that “net immigration since we took back control has gone down”. This is simply not so. In fact, it is deeply misleading. No official net migration figures have yet been published for the period since December 31, 2020 (when the Brexit transition period and free movement ended) so how can the PM say net immigration has gone down? We await figures for the year to June 2021, scheduled to be released in late May. However, by the time the PM made his statement, visa figures had been published which already showed an increase in non-EU arrivals during 2021.’
As Migration Watch says in its official response to Johnson’s planned new economic migrant/cheap labour routes from India, it represents more ‘caving to the business lobby’ and is another kick in the teeth for British workers. It is ‘frankly inexplicable’.
After the vastly increased immigration in Britain from around the world, driven by the scandalously lax post-Brexit immigration rules and enforcement, it is no more and no less than another two fingers up to the British people from their unscrupulous Partygate PM.
