Meanwhile, my ECR colleagues and I continue to push for a sensible, nation-led approach to tackling the migration crisis.
Both the type and quantity of migration that is desirable would be better decided at a more local level.
“In which EU country does the public when polled take the most positive view of immigration?”
The UK should be willing to consider some flexibility in return for a trade deal – with Australia, with India, with Brazil and, yes, with the EU.
The current system offends our allies and deters valuable skilled migrants. There is a better way.
Merkel is threatened. Macron is outraged. Brussels is paralysed. And all three trends are taken by their opponents as signs that they are winning.
We remain the only country in Europe to detain people indefinitely for the purposes of immigration enforcement, at large financial and human cost.
“In or out of the EU, our task remains the same: to be open, not closed, to the world around us. To always look outwards for opportunities, not inwards for cold comfort.”
I live and work in Spain. My fiancée is an EU citizen. Each of our futures, and our shared plans, are now tangled in a Brexit waiting game.
He is uniquely placed to start to rebuild trust – and that task is essential to our Party’s future.
“Are you seriously saying we should not have a system that checks whether people are legitimately in this country?” our Executive Editor asks the Guardian columnist.
We must oppose illegal immigration. But making life harder for legitimate residents helps nobody.
Without a firm, stated base, we are vulnerable to being pushed around by the Commission. Ministers might find it uncomfortable to talk numbers, but they must.
One or the other would be easier to solve – and politically helpful to at least somebody. As it is, our immigration system exhibits the worst of both worlds.
Diane Abbott is trying to forge an alliance between immigrant communities and an employer’s lobby keen to import labour.