The government is arming racists with alternative facts
(Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
The Conservative Party introduced a new line of attack to the election yesterday and sadly it was at the expense of EU migrants. A lamentable pattern of anti-immigration rhetoric is developing as the Tories attempt to make immigration a central dividing line in this election. After Theresa May brought the Home Office mentality to Downing Street, there was some hope that the allegedly more liberal Boris Johnson would change direction. Instead, the party seems only interested in emphasising the perceived downsides of immigration.
First the Tories attempted to whip up xenophobic hysteria, claiming that immigration will rise to 840,000 people a year under Labour. Now they’re implying that EU migrants will come to claim benefits if Labour gets in. According to the Conservatives, Labour plans to retain free movement with EU countries, a policy that would add £4 billion to the benefits bill within a decade. They claim that, based on government projections, the cost of extra benefits from free movement would rise from £50.2 million a year in 2020 to £824.3 million a year by 2029.
On Politics Live, Andrew Neil made the MP Paul Scully squirm as he attempted to defend this line, asking him: “Why do you put out that these migrants are going to cost us £4 billion in benefits, without taking into account they pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits?”
A pertinent question given that Migration Advisory Committee found that EEA migrants, do indeed, pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. The report also found that EEA migrants contribute much more to the health service and the provision of social care, in financial resources and through work, than they consume in services.
In fact, there’s a wealth of evidence showing EEA migrants contribute more to our system than they take out. Oxford Economics found that European migrants living in the UK contribute £2,300 more to the public purse each year than the average adult, suggesting a net lifetime contribution of £78,000. With Britain’s population ageing, the country has benefited from the influx of younger members to its labour force and will need more in the future. So why are the Tories warping the facts to fit their agenda?
The Conservatives are committed to ending free movement, reducing immigration and implementing an “Australian-style points-based immigration system”. There’s an argument to be made for this, not a great one, nor an economic one and not one I agree with, but it isn’t necessarily racist. The Tories claim they want a system based on bringing in people with the skills the country needs and treating countries equally. Fine, but it’s morally abhorrent to warp the facts while electioneering in such a way that potentially stokes anti-immigrant feeling. This has serious consequences. It encourages discrimination and arms racists with alternative facts.
There are over three million EU nationals in the UK currently feeling anxious and insecure. Many have already left because they fear for their future. The rhetoric of the Conservative Party is not only going to repel migrants from coming here, it will make those already here feel they are not welcome. Those who have made a life here and want to stay are relying on the government to ensure there is no Windrush-style debacle. The depiction of EU migrants as a threat to the country and benefit scroungers is not going to reassure them.
The Conservatives are clearly no longer the party of the free market and sound economics if they see EEA migrants merely as welfare claimants rather than, for the most part, taxpayers who contribute to economic growth. We have benefited from welcoming some of the most industrious, entrepreneurial and well-educated people that Europe has to offer. Denying this and putting up barriers is economically illiterate. Their cynical rhetoric is morally wrong.
This is not the party of Thatcher and Friedman but the party of Farage and the “liberal” Boris Johnson. Where’s the man who championed immigration and called for an amnesty for illegal immigrants? What happened to an open, “global” Britain? The Conservatives should be proud to say that EU migrants are a net economic and social benefit to this country. To do otherwise is intellectual dishonesty.
