Labour team makes a positive case for “remain”

Top Labour figures today carried on their drive to put across to the electorate good reasons for voting “remain” in next week’s referendum.

Deputy Leader Tom Watson was first in the queue, stressing the potential for creating jobs that comes from EU membership. He’s set his sights on 1 million new jobs coming from the EU by 2030 – by opening up markets in digital services, energey and tourism. Tom Watson sees the goal as being very in tune with Labour values, saying, “We believe in standing up for working people whose jobs and communities depend on trade with Europe. We believe in standing up for the rights of everyone to be treated fairly at work – and for the rights at work that are guaranteed by our membership of the European Union.”

This positive note comes as a welcome first step to redress his comments about immigration yesterday, which were at best dopey and at worst dangerous. Many Labour supporters were surprised to hear the Party’s Deputy Leader say that EU rules on the free movement of people must change in order to cut the number of EU citizens who come to live in the UK. EU citizens working and living in the UK form a large part of the domestic market. If these people were deported, or if others were not to replace them when they moved on, Britain’s domestic demand would drop like a stone – leaving small businesses with a drop in trade which many would not be able to survive.

That’s the dopey part. The dangerous part is that once timid politicians give in to a prevailing right wing, racist agenda by saying that immigration is a problem, more young extremists are encouraged to attack black and Asian people (immigrant or not) and stir up racism in the community.

Rushanara Ali’s re-tweet

Veteran Labour MP Alan Johnson echoed Tom Watson’s sentiments, saying that free movement of people in the EU should be supported because it helped “control” immigration from outside the EU and illegal immigration. It is hard to work out what on earth he was trying to get at. Johnson has connections with Tower Hamlets. Local Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick nominated Johnson in Labour’s deputy leadership contest in 2007, and Tower Hamlets’ other Labour MP, Rushanara Ali, retweeted a picture of herself out canvassing for a “remain” vote with Mr Johnson in Brick Lane last month (together with Claude Moreas MEP, John Biggs, Cllr Amy Whitelock and former councillor Abdal Ullah).

Seema Malhotra MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has also spoken out on the economic reasons for voting “remain”, concluding, “The EU isn’t perfect, but Britain should looking to change the EU for the better, not accepting defeat and walking away. Britain should be leading in Europe with this kind of agenda, and under the next Labour government we will be.”

Heidi Alexander MP

•A second positive strand of campaigning for “remain” has also been opened up by Heidi Alexander MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary. Referring to recent warnings from the NHS Confederation about the damage which a “leave” decision could do to the NHS, she said:
“The experts are clear: a vote to leave the European Union is serious threat to our National Health Service. The warnings of the NHS Confederation and others cannot be ignored. If we leave the European Union, the chances are the economy suffers a serious blow, tax revenue falls and there will be less money to spend on a whole range of public services, including the NHS.
“Tens of thousands of staff from EU countries work in our hospitals and when we have massive staffing shortages, which in some places are leading to the closure of services, we can’t afford to lose trained nurses and doctors. That is why, in the final days of this campaign, we will be urging voters to back remain on the 23 June to help protect our NHS.”

•To complete a day of setting a positive agenda for “remain”, Labour has tabled the following motion in the House of Commons:
“The Economic Benefits of the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union:
“That this House believes that the United Kingdom needs to stay in the European Union because it offers the best framework for trade, manufacturing, employment rights and cooperation to meet the challenges we face in the world in the twenty first century and notes that tens of billion pounds-worth of investment and millions of jobs are linked to our membership of the European Union, the biggest market in the world.”

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