Ed Miliband ‘backs UK workers’ in immigration crackdown

ED MILIBAND took a swipe at former prime minister Gordon Brown over Labour’s approach to migrant workers yesterday, as he pledged new measures to stop British people being “locked out” of jobs by foreign labour.

ED MILIBAND took a swipe at former prime minister Gordon Brown over Labour’s approach to migrant workers yesterday, as he pledged new measures to stop British people being “locked out” of jobs by foreign labour.

Overseas-only employment agencies would be banned under Labour plans set out yesterday and firms would be forced to declare if they employ high numbers of overseas workers.

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But the SNP said the speech was “nothing more than dog-whistle politics”.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Miliband distanced himself from the rhetoric of his predecessor, saying: “I am not going to promise ‘British jobs for British workers’. But we need an economy which offers working people a fair crack of the whip. The problem we need to address is in those areas and sectors where local talent is locked out of opportunity.”

In a further pointed swipe at Mr Brown, he said people who expressed legitimate concerns about immigration should be engaged with, not dismissed as “bigoted”.

The former premier damaged Labour’s 2010 election campaign when he was caught on microphone using the term about voter Gillian Duffy after meeting the pensioner in Rochdale.

“Worrying about immigration, talking about immigration, thinking about immigration, does not make them bigots. Not in any way,” Mr Miliband said.

“They’re anxious about the future. And since this conversation is going on in the houses, streets and neighbourhoods of Britain, it must be a conversation that the Labour Party joins, too.”

Ms Duffy yesterday said successive administrations have failed to tackle the issue.

“All governments have got it wrong, I think, not just Labour,” she said. “The Conservatives, too – they just don’t know how to tackle the problem. We’re in Europe so we’ve got to accept so many Europeans coming into the country.”

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Mr Miliband said there cannot be set quotas on home-grown workers, but urgent action is required to identify where British jobseekers need better training to compete.

Stricter enforcement of minimum wage laws and doubling fines to £10,000 would also form part of an effort to stop firms using cheap foreign labour to undercut domestic jobseekers.

The last Labour government under Mr Brown became “too disconnected from the concerns of working people”, Mr Miliband said. “We too easily assumed those who worried about immigration were stuck in the past, unrealistic about how things could be different, even prejudiced,” he said.

“But Britain was experiencing the largest peacetime migration in recent history, and people’s concerns were genuine. Why didn’t we listen more? At least by the end of our time in office, we were too dazzled by globalisation and too sanguine about its price.”

SNP business and enterprise spokesperson Mike Weir MP said: “This is nothing more than dog-whistle politics from Ed Miliband. He sounds more like the Tories and Michael Howard in 2005 than the leader of a progressive party.

“Clearly, Labour has not learnt their lesson from Gordon Brown’s ‘British jobs for British workers’ embarrassment. Scotland has diverse labour market needs and demands so a flexible approach to immigration which would help the economic recovery is what is needed.”

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “Until Ed Miliband supports the government’s measures to cut and control immigration, Labour will have no credibility at all.”