By refusing to back freedom of movement, Labour has turned its back on immigrant, working class voters

Labour’s position on Brexit has confused the general public since it was first concocted. The repeated mantra of a “jobs-first Brexit” has about as much meaning as Theresa May’s “red, white and blue Brexit” statement back in 2016, and to this day we are still left questioning what the party’s ultimate goal is.

Labour’s official plan is to stay in the customs union and the single market temporarily, but that a new customs union would be negotiated with the EU with free movement also coming to an end - something shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry recently re-affirmed by stating the party’s “reservation” over single market membership.

Glimmers of hope emerged when Labour whipped in favour of the Norway Plus and second referendum indicative votes this Monday, the former of which would reverse the party’s longstanding policy against freedom of movement - and yet, expectations quickly dissolved as the Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesperson yesterday affirmed Labour will not change its position on the issue.

As a leftist and Labour supporter, who joined my university club and avidly campaigned for the party in the 2017 general elections before I‘d even obtained my UK citizenship, I’ve been confused and disappointed by the party’s Brexit stance.

What has been done has been too little and too late, and despite the overwhelmingly pro-European stance of its current members, a disproportionately large platform has been provided to “Lexit” voices. It has baffled me how many Corbyn supporters, who call for more public funding to reduce inequality, ignore the fact that this will be infinitely harder under any Brexit scenario.

Furthermore, the way anyone who dares critique the official Labour Brexit plan gets automatically labelled a “centrist” or “Blairite” is tiresome and off-putting for young people like myself who see Corbyn’s vision best aligned to staying in the EU, a cross-border platform which allows us to successfully push for leftist reforms.

But nothing compares to the disheartening sense of disappointment at the party’s continuous refusal to defend freedom of movement.

Over the past few years, the failure to defend freedom of movement has been perhaps the biggest achilles heel in Labour‘s Brexit policy. Corbyn has prominently repeated Lexiter arguments on free movement’s “race to the bottom”, and Thornberry’s recent comments on immigration prove the party leadership’s rhetoric hasn’t changed.

Now, in spite of the promising Common Market 2.0 whip, affiliated website LabourList has confirmed that the party has nominally ditched freedom of movement in favour of the “reasonable management of migration”, whatever that means. While Labour’s official Brexit policy has been a disappointment for many of its pro-European members, its stance on free movement ultimately panders to the worst kind of Euroscepticism - and for me is the hardest policy to stomach.

Within many circles of the Eurosceptic left, freedom of movement is widely perceived as a threat to the working class, a “neoliberal” project allowing for the unregulated flow of unskilled migrants whose labour is exploited and contributes to the undercutting of the wages of British workers. But this tired argument ultimately fails on the grounds that it treats an overestimated symptom as a cause.

No one denies that recent neoliberal policies have harmed the working class, and that there have been cases of the exploitation of foreign labour. But freedom of movement in itself has not contributed to this as a whole, since statistics show time and time again that the link between higher immigration and the depression of wages is weak at best – if anything, EU citizens coming here are a net positive to the economy.

And anyway, many of the unintended side effects and legal loopholes relating to the exploitation of foreign labour, which the EU has addressed in a recent law, can be handled at the domestic level by advocating for stronger trade unions and workers’ protections. Freedom of movement is socialist internationalism in action, allowing workers to freely move in a borderless world, and the Labour party’s refusal to earnestly uphold it is a betrayal of its ideological roots.

The Labour leadership, instead of taking the opportunity to reach out to communities across the country and advocate for the benefits of free movement, has played right into the hands of Ukip by parroting their mantra of uncontrolled immigration and lowered wages.

More depressing is the way that any discussion of the working class seems to only focus on the British-born, thus ignoring the voices of countless European workers living here. Labour posits itself as a pro-migrant party, lambasting the Tories for their terrible record on issues such as the Windrush scandal, the settled status scheme and the Home Office’s hostile environment.

Nevertheless, it cannot do so if it falls prey to the insidious traps of nationalist rhetoric. How can it truly claim to champion the value of EU nationals living and working here, if at the same time it argues we need further controls on their entry into this country?

I am the product of freedom of movement – Italian-born, raised in Ireland, and living in England for nearly 14 years. In my case, my father moved twice for his job – perhaps unlike future generations, I was lucky enough to benefit from the ability to move freely across Europe.

For those who may be financially disadvantaged, freedom of movement is an unprecedented opportunity to live in 27 other countries. This freedom is only spoken about in the way it will affect migration into the country, but what about the way in which it allows Brits to study and work across the continent? I am lucky to have dual citizenship – but how can I take seriously Labour’s claim to be a party for the young when its very policies clip our wings?

The whip on Nick Boles’ Norway Plus plan and a second referendum was a step forward for Labour. So why did they immediately row back on their commitment? This was the time for the party to take a public stand in favour of free movement, especially when far-right and anti-immigration rhetoric is continually increasing in the UK.

Labour might currently feel that it’s doing its best at maintaining internal unity, but in the long run it will realise the indelible damage it is doing to the working class and immigrants living here, the vast majority of whom vote Labour. The party should listen to their voices and back freedom of movement unapologetically – or it risks losing them for good.