Jeremy Corbyn has found himself under fresh fire today after adopting UKIP’s stance on immigration on the Andrew Marr programme this morning.
When pressed on his party’s attitude towards immigration, Corbyn claimed that “the wholesale importation of underpaid workers from central Europe” was “destroying conditions” for British workers, adopting a nativist approach that wouldn’t be out of place in notorious hard-right party, UKIP.
UKIP’s 2017 manifesto said the following about immigration, bearing a striking resemblance to what Corbyn said this morning: “Immigration has placed huge pressure on public services and housing. It has affected the domestic labour market, where wages for manual and low- paid jobs have stagnated.”
Critics have claimed that this far exceeds the “controls on immigration” mug scandal that hit Ed Miliband during the 2015 general election, with Corbyn now actively stirring up community tensions and striking out against migrants in order to gain political benefit. Labour sources are further concerned that this will cause a rebellion in the liberal membership of the party.