Brexiteer ex-Tory minister calls for MORE immigration from EU
Eustice has been the MP for Camborne and Redruth since 2010.
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Former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, has become the latest Brexiteer to call on Rishi Sunak to reassess the Government's immigration policy.
Eustice has labelled labour shortages and inflation as caused by “flaws” in the “so-called skills-based immigration system” adopted after Brexit.
Though the MP for Camborne and Redruth refrained from calling for a return to Schengen Area freedom of movement, Eustice recommended Sunak “rekindle that post-Brexit friendship with our European neighbours”.
Eustice’s intervention comes after Tobias Ellwood called for Britain to rejoin the single market.
In times of crisis, cracks are widening amongst the Tories, with a group of MPs lurching towards the right-wing by setting up the New Conservatives, prompting others to push back in the opposite direction.
Eustice told The Observer: “We are allowing in people who are deemed skilled such as lawyers, insolvency practitioners, museum officers, even disc jockeys, when we have no shortages whatsoever in those sectors.
“But we are not allowing people to come here to work in sectors like the food industry, even though there are acute labour shortages in these sectors, and that is contributing to inflation.
“So that is the big problem. My proposal is that we commence bilateral negotiations with EU member states, starting with countries like Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states, and widen it to the whole of the EU eventually, to establish a reciprocal youth-mobility visa scheme.”
Eustice was appointed Secretary of State by Johnson on 13 February 2020 by Boris Johnson and removed on 6 September 2022 by Liz Truss
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The former Defra secretary proposed that EU citizens under 35 should be granted access to live and work in the UK for two years, with the favour repaid to allow Brits to do the same in EU member states.
Meanwhile, Tobias Ellwood told the i: “Nobody dares mention Brexit on the Labour or Conservative side or look at the numbers to see whether economically it would be wiser for us to be in or outside of the single market.”
The former minister and current MP for Bournemouth East added: “Surely we should have that strength of character, the courage to look at the biggest generational decision which [has] now clearly not gone in the right direction.
“I didn’t know anybody who voted Remain or Brexit, who expected us to be where we are today, but we dare not go there.”
Tobias Ellwood is a formed soldier and was a minister at the Ministry of Defence from 2017 to 2019
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Comprising 25 MPs including Tory chairman Lee Anderson, the New Conservatives have called on the Government to reduce net migration from 606,000 to below 226,000.
Moderate Conservative MPs have accused the "fanatic" group of being a "gift to Labour", "trashing the Conservative brand", and "the last thing we need".
Eustice also took aim at Theresa May’s post-Brexit immigration policy: “The idea of having no temporary visa schemes was not from the Vote Leave campaign.
“That was not what Brexit was about. People wanted controlled immigration and not to pull up the drawbridge and allow no one in at all.”
Ellwood has been the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East since 2005
PA
Suggesting the strategy was botched by conflicts of opinion, Eustice labelled May’s plan as “a remainer’s interpretation of what Brexit was about.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We already have successful Youth Mobility Schemes with 10 countries, including Australia and New Zealand, and remain open to agreeing them with our international partners, including EU member states.
“We work closely with the Migration Advisory Committee to ensure our points-based system delivers for the UK and works in the best interests of the economy, including reviewing the Shortage Occupation List to ensure it reflects the current labour market.”
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