Jeremy Corbyn has demanded social justice for migrants just days after Sir Keir Starmer said that the UK must wean itself off “immigration dependency”.
The leader of the Labour Party warned bosses the days of “low pay and cheap labour” must end and told them to train up UK workers to end Britain’s “immigration dependency”.
In a speech on Tuesday, Starmer said he would be willing to accept increased skilled immigration on the path to his vision of ending the “low pay model”.
Sir Keir vowed to be “pragmatic” about the shortage of workers and not to ignore the need for skilled individuals to come into the country if he forms a Labour government.
Stefan Rousseau
Addressing the Confederation of British Industry conference, he set out plans to “start investing more in training up workers who are already here”.
Sir Keir vowed to be “pragmatic” about the shortage of workers and not to ignore the need for skilled individuals to come into the country if he forms a Labour government.
Now, the former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, has thrown his own thoughts into the ongoing discussion.
Writing for the Independent, he said: “There is no such thing as unskilled labour – only labour that is undervalued, under appreciated and underpaid.
Jeremy Corbyn has demanded social justice for migrants just days after Sir Keir Starmer said that the UK must wean itself off “immigration dependency”.
Kirsty O'Connor
“Migrants are not commodities to be traded in business interventions. They are human beings to be respected, recognised and rewarded in all walks of life, just like anyone else.
“There is no use lamenting low pay unless we are prepared to confront its root cause: greedy bosses, exploitative labour conditions and attacks on trade unions.
“That means defending an anti-racist economic policy that recognises – and rectifies – the enormous inequality that exists across both class and racial lines.”
Responding to Starmer’s comments, a Conservative Party spokesman said: “Keir Starmer talks tough on immigration, but all his ‘policy’ amounts to is giving big business all the cheap, low-skilled foreign labour it asks for. Labour wouldn’t lift a finger to support our domestic workforce to fill vacancies.
“He is a dyed-in-the-wool open borders advocate who wants to give illegal migrants priority access to work permits and whose shadow home secretary won’t even say if she wants to see numbers fall.”
