Jeremy Corbyn will shortly give his speech on Labour’s position on freedom of movement, hopefully clarifying whether that is his pre-briefed position that the newspapers published this morning, or his position as set out in his Today programme interview. It was initially briefed that he was ‘not wedded’ to the idea of freedom of movement, but then said Labour would not stop any EU citizens from coming to the UK.
To add to the confusion over this policy announcement which appeared to be moving the Labour party to the right on immigration, the Labour leader then did the equivalent of shouting ‘look at that massive left-wing squirrel over there!’ in order to distract everyone by suggesting a national salary cap. This will provoke a row in his party between moderates who might previously have been relieved that the Labour leader was taking some of their concerns about immigration seriously and the Corbynites who could argue that Labour shouldn’t be a party that makes life easy for the rich.
What is most curious about this announcement, though, is that it comes when Labour should surely be focusing all of its efforts on the NHS crisis.
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