Brexit votes: MPs fail to back proposals again

[Denzil_DC]

17. Oh, and in case the FOM argument seems a little parochial because of the way it cropped up here,

here's another argument to add to the stack that should have been conducted years ago, certainly before the referendum (and has been expressed in more or less these terms by Sturgeon at various times):

Labour must make a principled case for free movement
Undermining existing rights to free movement undermines the rights of the whole working class. Labour must offer a vision of an open, democratic, egalitarian Britain.

...

But Labour’s alternative vision has to be grounded in its principles. There should have never been any serious doubt that Labour would oppose the Immigration Bill. More than this, Corbynism will start to look like shallow, business-as-usual politics if it cannot conduct a principled argument in defence of migration and free movement.

The economic arguments in favour of migration – from its impact on growth to the absence of impact on wages and employment – are clear, robust, empirically-grounded, and politically almost useless. Trying to tackle Nigel Farage or Tommy Robinson by waving academic research around is like bringing a spreadsheet to a knife fight. It’s not that people don’t want evidence and research – they do. And they want clear policies that they can see will be workable. But both have to arrive in a context where what really matters is the story we tell about the kind of people we are and the kind of country we want to build.

This political argument is where the left has to win this fight. We defend free movement on the grounds of the solid principle at stake – that we defend the rights of the 3.7 million EU citizens here in Britain, and the 1.3 million UK citizens in the EU – and the defence of that principle should be an important part of Labour’s story.

...

Undermining existing rights to free movement undermines the rights of the whole working class: forcing migrants into illegal work or depriving them of protections makes it harder, not easier, to maintain rights for everyone else. And as polling shows, public attitudes on migration are softening markedly. Class politics, growing electoral advantage and – above all – a clear and principled vision of an open, democratic, egalitarian Britain should all point Labour towards a solid defence of existing rights to free movement.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/02/labour-must-make-principled-case-free-movement