Boris Johnson's immigration lies pale in comparison to his other deceits - and that's what's giving him a poll lead
The Tories’ current opinion poll lead over Labour is believed to be thanks to Tory campaign pledges on immigration. The only problem is – like many of Boris Johnson’s Brexit promises – none of his immigration pledges are true.
Let’s start with the first lie. Johnson is repeating the same old promise last heard when he asked the public to vote for Brexit in 2016: if the Tories win the general election, they will launch an Australian-style points based system. It’s claimed that this will bring highly skilled migrants the UK needs to support our economy.
The inconvenient truth is that the UK has had this points based system for over 10 years, launched by the Labour Party. It speaks volumes to see the prime minister make such a promise about an immigration system he clearly knows so very little about. Why else promise the public a system we’ve already got, unless either the PM doesn’t know or he hopes the public or media is easily fooled?
The government even updated its guidance for our points based system last Friday. Maybe someone should tell the home secretary Priti Patel, as she seems unaware of it too and it’s her Home Office that runs it.
The second fib is that a vote for the Conservatives would bring an end to EU freedom of movement. This is false for two reasons. The first reason is simple: if Johnson wins and his MPs "get Brexit done", this means they promise to pass a withdrawal agreement. Crucially, this also means the start of a minimum two-year transition period -- where the agreement states that free movement will, in fact, continue.
When you remember the withdrawal agreement – not yet agreed – was supposed to take only two years, but has taken more than three, it is not hard to imagine the transition period might go on and on too.
The second reason is somewhat technical: EU freedom of movement isn’t unrestricted. A regular mantra from both the left and right is an assumption that free movement means no limits. But there are limits - and every EU country expels EU citizens for violating EU free movement rules every month. Even the UK. Maybe the prime minister is again unaware of this, but it’s true.
The third porkie is that EU nationals would be treated just like non-EU nationals and be required to have a job offer to work in the UK. That’s not at all true either.
Non-EU nationals can work in the UK without a job offer. It’s alarming to see this is apparently – yet again – unknown to the prime minister or home secretary. The easiest way is to apply for what’s called a Tier 1 visa, but there can be other routes.
So while Johnson is clearly making much of this pledge, it’s yet another promise he’ll definitely break. And we know he will break this promise because there are no such changes for non-EU workers.
These three election pledges on immigration are helping the Tories in the polls. Yet each pledge promises a lie: a system already in place, freedom of movement will continue as per Johnson’s Agreement terms and existing exemptions for non-EU citizens to work in the UK without a job contract will apply to EU nationals.
Such mass deception is as unwarranted as it is unprecedented. We now also see serious allegations that Brexit Party candidates may have been offered jobs to stand down as candidates to boost Tories at the polls – now under investigation. The public deserves to be treated – and respected – much better than this. We can start by exposing the facts.
Thom Brooks is professor of law and government at the University of Durham
