The_Guardian_-_2016-12-29

His frank language about both the prime minister and Blair come as Labour strategists seek to ramp
up Corbyn’s image as a leftwing populist who is prepared to rail against establishment figures.
They believe that while the Labour leader is already seen in that way by part of the population, there
are too many voters who may consider the Islington MP to be part of the establishment.
Corbyn is expected to appear more frequently on television, as an expanded team of advisers work up
policies aimed at underlining a willingness to lead a revolt against vested interests.
Despite pressure from Labour MPs, including Manchester mayoral hopeful Andy Burnham, to take a
tougher line on free movement, Corbyn did not list immigration among his post-Brexit priorities.
Instead, he spelled out a desire to protect “market access” as well as maintaining human rights and
opposing racism.
Arguing that Britain could not be a “bargain basement economy” on the edge of Europe, he also
claimed that there was a “level of exaggeration” about any negative impacts of migration on British
society.
Andy Burnham, who has urged Labour to take a tougher stance on immigration. Photograph: Peter
Byrne/PA
Corbyn said: “We should recognise that European workers in Britain do contribute massively to the
health service, education, manufacturing industry, care work, agricultural sector. We’d be in quite a
difficult place if they all went.
“We have to recognise that people do move around the continent, do move to work, do move to pay
taxes and to benefit the economy that they come into. They don’t have unfettered access to benefits the
day they arrive in Britain, they don’t have unfettered access to housing the day they arrive.”
Corbyn said he wanted people to “think for a moment: who treats them when they go to the doctors,
who treats them when they go to hospital, who is doing the technical work often in many places, and
you’ll find the same with British people all over the world.”
Corbyn argued that companies such as Airbus, Nissan and Hitachi needed to be free to move skilled
workers around Europe and would leave Britain if Brexit meant higher tariffs to access the single
market.
He also hinted that he believed continued free movement would be necessary to secure Labour’s
priority of economic access, claiming that a work visa scheme would be “fraught with difficulties”