8. Debate on the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee Report: Changes to freedom of movement after Brexit — Implications for Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:00 pm on 22 January 2020.

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Photo of David Rowlands David Rowlands UKIP 5:00, 22 January 2020

Absolutely. I think that's a very unfortunate epithet, David. There's no doubt about that at all. [Interruption.] Well, I've not used it in this Chamber.

What we must not forget, however, is that freedom of movement was the biggest single issue raised by the people of the UK, and especially those in Wales. The Labour party, and to a certain extent Plaid Cymru, have paid a heavy price for ignoring the concerns of its former working class supporters.

I've read through this report, and the Government's responses, which of course include all the usual platitudes whilst ignoring the true reality of what mass immigration has meant, not only for the indigenous population but for the vast numbers of immigrants who have found themselves cruelly exploited with none of the rights afforded them by the oft-lauded European workers' rights legislation. Many are little more than slaves, and I refer here not just to the sex trade, but to many other so-called occupations, such as the car washers, which I have raised often in this Chamber. 

There is no mention in this report or in the Government's reply about taking this Brexit opportunity to address these exploitative occupations and to seek to help those engaged in such work to have the freedom to return home and release themselves from the bondage imposed by the criminal organisations that exploit them. I shall remind this Chamber that we had no such practices in the UK until the introduction of mass immigration, especially from former eastern European countries. Surely, addressing these practices is a far more pressing and humanitarian need than a plethora of initiatives designed to inform those who are probably already well aware of their right to stay after Brexit. Indeed, many thousands have already filed the necessary papers to secure their continued residence.

What this report does not address is why we need those people from other countries in the first place. After all, Wales has 22.7 per cent of its population—that's almost a quarter—economically inactive. The answer lies, of course, in both the Labour and Tory parties' neglect in providing the facilities and training opportunities for our indigenous population. We often hear that we could not run our national health service without foreign nationals, yet, every year, 80,000 nurse training applicants who have the necessary qualifications are turned down, and many thousands who, after avleave of absence, wish to return to the health service are turned down, because their skills qualify them for the higher wage bands. Better to plunder cheap labour from abroad. The shortage of doctor training places throughout the UK, including Wales, has been highlighted many times in this Chamber.

So, the Brexit Party sees little in this report or the Government's responses that has not been previously addressed, either by the UK Government or the Welsh Government, and that many of the Welsh Government's responses have confirmed. I'm sure the people of Wales do not want to see good, hard-working European workers removed, repatriated or any other such form of rejection implemented. But what they clearly want is a controlled immigration policy that follows that of the Australian points-based system, now partly proposed by the Tories, but one that some of us have advocated for a very long time.