Richard Leonard breaks with UK Labour policy to call for continuation of free movement after Brexit

Richard Leonard has broken with UK Labour policy and called for the continuation of free movement of people in any Brexit deal.

Labour’s 2017 general election manifesto said: “Freedom of movement will end when we leave the European Union”, with Jeremy Corbyn stating that, under a Labour deal, immigration “would be a managed thing on the basis of the skills required”.

The UK Labour leader said: “What there wouldn’t be is whole-scale importation of underpaid workers from central Europe in order to destroy conditions, particularly in the construction industries.”

But the Scottish Labour leader has broken from UK party policy, in an exclusive interview with Holyrood ahead of the party’s conference in Dundee, by describing free movement as “culturally, socially and economically enriching for us” and arguing “the [withdrawal] agreement could contain the continuation of free movement of people as it is now. Or it could contain a variant of that.”

Under the terms of Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, which was rejected by MPs in January, freedom of movement would come to an end.

But while Labour has called for a system of ‘managed migration’ to replace free movement, one of the “four freedoms” set out in the Treaty of Rome, Leonard has defended the system, while blasting May’s treatment of EU nationals currently living in Scotland.

Leonard told Holyrood: “We’ll have a debate at conference where we will discuss Brexit. The following week, there will be the meaningful vote on the deal, and depending on how that goes, there will then be a vote on no deal or not, and depending on how that goes, there will be a vote on whether to extend Article 50 or not. In the course of that, Labour will once again aim to amend the Brexit agreement so it includes a permanent customs union, continued close alignment with the single market, protection of workers’ rights, consumer rights, environmental protection.”

Asked if it was still possible to reach his preferred deal, including the retention of free movement, he said: “Of course it is. It’s all dependent on the deal that forms the basis of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. What I’m saying is that the possibility remains for us to continue with freedom of movement of people. You see, one of the concerns I am always exercised by, there is lots of talk about freedom of trade and freedom of movement of capital and so on, but what about free movement of people?

“To me, that is extremely important, and one of the awful parts of this whole Brexit process has been the point at which Theresa May and her government were prepared to use EU citizens living here as some kind of pawn in their negotiations. That was terrible, they should have given an immediate and unequivocal commitment that people who live and work here would be able to stay here.”

He added: “I would like to see the continuation of free movement of people. I think it has been culturally, socially and economically enriching for us.”

Read the full interview in Holyrood on Monday.