The warnings about Brexit could not have been clearer: leaving the EU would lead to an exodus of foreign workers and students from Britain. So far though the reality hasn’t quite matched that prediction. The Sun picks up on news today that a record number of overseas students – 70,900 – applied to study in Britain last year. ‘NHS workers from the EU are on the up, too’, says the paper, which argues that, despite the warnings, Britain will remain ‘attractive for those wanting to better their lot’. Yet the large number of people who do want to come to Britain also means ‘it is right that we take control of our borders once we leave the EU’. ‘Taking in a city the size of Newcastle every year is not sustainable’, says the Sun. So when freedom of movement ends, regaining control of Britain’s immigration policy will be vital, argues the paper. This isn’t about ’looking to pull up the drawbridge’ though, despite what some might say; instead, ‘it is about having control over the flow to best suit our needs,’ concludes the paper.
The Guardian meanwhile says that one of the strange things about Brexit is ‘how little conflict there is between Labour and the Conservatives’. Labour has done little to obstruct the Tories on their plans to pursue what the paper calls a hard Brexit, and ‘Corbyn’s views’ on Brexit remain ‘vague’ at best. So while the Tories might be ‘dedicated to rupture’ from both the single market and customs union, in doing so, there is ‘at least ideological consistency’ within the party’s ranks. The same can’t be said for the Labour party, says the Guardian, which argues that ‘Labour’s history and values should tilt the party in the opposite direction’ from those who want a hard Brexit. After all, argues the Guardian, ‘the best strategy to avoid a race to the bottom in workers’ conditions is international cooperation’ – being a part of the EU is a key example, says the paper. So it is time for Corbyn and the Labour party to realise this and start making the case for staying put in the single market and putting the fight to the Tories.
The Daily Telegraph also directs its editorial at the Labour party, saying that those moderate MPs left within the party’s ranks must start standing up to the hard-left while they still can. There is no doubt that ‘the election re-energised the hard Left’; and Momentum figures such as Jon Lansman, the group’s chairman, look set to soon win positions on the party’s National Executive Committee. ‘The hard Left’s grip on the party…is being reasserted’, says the Telegraph, which says that no where is this more clearly demonstrated than in the news reported in the Observer yesterday that Momentum is now asking prospective parliamentary candidates to sign a declaration that they will build on the ’energy and enthusiasm of the Jeremy for Leader campaign’. Such a move ‘has worrying implications for our democracy’, concludes the Telegraph, which says that those cowed by Corbyn’s success in June’s snap election ‘need to make a stand soon, or it will be too late for them’.
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