Eluned Morgan has said Keir Starmer’s migration plan will “damage Wales. I’m genuinely lost for words at this. Does she want to lose? It certainly seems that way.
I’ve been critical of Starmer’s migration policy. But not because it’s been too hardline. The simple reality is it doesn’t go far enough.
If that was the basis of Eluned’s criticism, I’d say fair enough. But it isn’t. Eluned, and Welsh Labour, are attacking Keir Starmer for being too tough. They want a more liberal approach.
I cannot overstate how disastrous that would be for Wales and for Britain. Our public services are underperforming as it is. The pressures migration places on our NHS, schools and housing are considerable. More migration will mean those pressures get worse.
Eluned, along with Plaid Cymru separatists, has tried to play the “care workers” card. This is bogus. The solution to the social care crisis is not to import cheap foreign labour. It’s to pay care workers properly.
The same argument applies to our NHS. On Tuesday, Eluned boasted that 50% of doctors and nurses at one Welsh health board were trained outside the UK. This is not something to be proud of. Instead, she and Welsh Labour should be ashamed. Since devolution, they’ve been responsible for training in our Welsh NHS. The failure to train enough doctors and nurses is on them.
ONS figures show that, over the course of their time in Britain, low skilled migrants cost taxpayers £150,000 each. The idea our economy needs more migration is a myth, peddled by big business to keep wages down. GDP per capita, the amount we generate per head of population, has fallen during the era of mass migration.
I’ve already been honest the last Conservative government got it wrong on immigration. Yes, yesterday’s fall was the result of measures introduced by the last government. But we need to go much, much further.
While Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage all seem to accept this, Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru separatists do not.
They are dangerously out of touch.
NOTE: Link to the original article can be found here