Corbyn’s Brexit speech & why progressive politicans MUST challenge false migration narratives

Date: 10 January 2017

Responding to Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on Brexit today, Nick Dearden the director of campaign group Global Justice Now said:

“We have a situation in the UK where xenophobia is on the rise, and there is vicious, widespread scapegoating of migrants from newspapers and politicians for all of society’s ills. In that context, progressive politicians have a responsibility to challenge the false narrative that migration is a fundamental problem rather than reinforce it. There’s no evidence to show that migration has a significant effect on lowering average wages, but there is a whole wealth of evidence to show that the general public has been consistently exposed to a series of sensationalist lies about the extent of migration and the impacts it has on UK society.

“In the context of Brexit we should be fighting for freedom of movement within the EU. We should be fighting for the sake of our NHS and other important public services that depend on hard working EU nationals staffing it, and we should be fighting for the rights and well being of the three million EU nationals living in the UK whose lives shouldn’t be treated as bargaining chips in Theresa May’s negotiations.

“And we also need to be looking to challenge the inhumane policing that’s taking place on the EU’s borders. This week refugees on the island of Lesbos have been facing icy temperatures and inches of snow while they are trapped in limbo as a result of the EU-Turkey refugee agreement. We can’t allow the political turmoil that the UK is facing to distract us from the ongoing refugee crisis. The UK has taken in only a tiny handful of refugees compared to other EU countries. Our basic human decency and compassion is being sacrificed to appease a politically constructed narrative based on lies and disinformation.”