MPs to consider repealing EU freedom of movement rules in the UK

Ministers will launch a fresh attempt to repeal EU freedom of movement rules in the UK as flagship immigration legislation appears before MPs.

The Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill is part of the move towards the Government’s new points-based immigration system, to be introduced from 2021, although it does not set out the details on this.

These will be fleshed out in the immigration rules, which will explain the future system for EU and non-EU nationals who move to the UK after the Brexit transition period ends on December 2020.

It was previously introduced in the Commons in December 2018 but stalled weeks later as then prime minister Theresa May’s minority administration lacked the numbers to win key Brexit-linked votes.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson brings it back with an 80-seat majority but amid pressure for the immigration rules to support those dubbed “key workers” during the coronavirus pandemic.

A YouGov poll, for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), suggested 54% of Britons would support loosening immigration restrictions for workers who were defined as essential during the crisis.

In February the Government announced proposals for the new system, with points awarded for specific requirements such as being able to speak English to a certain level, having a job offer from an approved employer and meeting a salary threshold of £25,600.

Other points could be awarded for certain qualifications and if there is a shortage in a particular occupation.

A visa allowing doctors, nurses and health professionals from overseas to work in the NHS was introduced in March.

“Our new points-based system is firmer, fairer, and simpler.

“It will attract the people we need to drive our economy forward and lay the foundation for a high wage, high skill, high productivity economy.”

Labour frontbencher Alison McGovern, however, said the Government needed a different approach.

Elsewhere, Satbir Singh, chief executive of the JCWI, called for further changes and said: “The fight against Covid-19 has shown us all just how much our survival and wellbeing depends on our key workers.

“So many of them have come from other countries and help keep this one running.

“Bus drivers and lorry drivers, care workers and shop workers, nurses and cleaners – they are not ‘unskilled’ or unwelcome, they are the backbone of our country and they deserve the security of knowing that this place can be their home too.”