Greg Wright: It's wrong to use families as pawns in Brexit game

HUMAN beings should never be used as bargaining chips.
Human beings have become bargaining chips in the Brexit debate.Human beings have become bargaining chips in the Brexit debate.
Human beings have become bargaining chips in the Brexit debate.

This may sound like a statement of the blindingly obvious, but it is worth repeating in the topsy-turvy post-EU referendum world.

Britons love their sense of fair play, so it’s unsurprising that the Government’s failure to provide unequivocal assurances about the rights of EU nationals to remain in the UK after Brexit has caused anger.

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As a civilised country, can we really allow the agony to continue for up to three million EU nationals and their families who live in Britain?

Many of them are the very workers who stopped the UK from falling into a much deeper recession after the financial crash of 2008. Many firms have hired skilled EU workers because of failings in our own labour market.

EU nationals help to power our nation’s economy, which is still outperforming most of our rivals. And their reward? Potentially years of anxiety. We should collectively hang our heads in shame.

The Government is happy to rely on EU workers when it needs them to prop up our essential services, but it won’t place an absolute assurance that they will have the right to stay here post-Brexit on the statute book.

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It was sad to watch Labour MP Harriet Harman’s attempt to amend the “Brexit” bill, so that it included a clause to protect the residence rights of EU citizens in the UK, defeated in the House of Commons.

EU nationals who live in the UK are not to blame for the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit negotiations, which is due to the Government’s failure to have a strategy to tackle the challenges and opportunities outside the EU.

Mrs May said that she plans to make guaranteeing the status of EU nationals living in the UK – and those of Britons living in the rest of the EU – a “top priority” once talks about Brexit begin.

She has said there is “goodwill on all sides in relation to this matter” and “we recognise people want reassurances for their future”.

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These are warm words, but this is simply hot air until talks start in earnest.

Goodwill can soon vanish around any negotiating table. The EU negotiators may well believe that they don’t owe Mrs May any favours.

There can be no guarantee that the Government will get the Brexit deal it wants.

It’s not unpatriotic to point out flaws in the Government’s position, or question why we cannot simply grant permanent residence rights for EU citizens who were lawfully in Britain at the time of the referendum.

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As Ms Harman noted in her Commons speech, there is evidence that the uncertainty surrounding the status of EU workers is already causing exploitation.

Margaret Beels, the chairman of the Gangmaster’s Licensing Authority, told the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights that some gangmasters are telling EU workers that they can’t complain about not being paid or unsafe working conditions, because they will face deportation.

In the current climate of fear and confusion, many workers will believe them. They have suddenly become much more vulnerable.

As Ms Harman told the Commons: “If you’ve been in hospital recently you will very likely have woken to find a Spanish or a Portuguese nurse at your bedside.

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“If you’ve got an older relative in a care home, you’ll very likely have seen them being cared for by someone from Eastern Europe.” Or to quote Caroline Lucas, the Green MP: “People’s lives are not to be traded as part of some wider deal.”

There is, of course, the possibility that the House of Lords could urge the Commons to think again this week.

In the current heated atmosphere, in which Brexit Secretary David Davis is calling on peers to do their patriotic duty, this seems a slim hope.

Mr Davis has told peers not to attempt to change the two-clause European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill as it was passed by MPs, because it reflects the will of the people.

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But the House of Lords still has a vital role. It is a source of expert cross-party wisdom and it can also provide a healthy pause for reflection. It should not be cowed into unquestioning acceptance. If the peers believe it is foolish to not make arrangements to protect EU workers, they must say so.

And when voters backed Brexit, did they really want to give carte blanche to bullying gangmasters? Of course not.

But, according to evidence presented to Parliament, this has been one of the outcomes of our current Brexit strategy.

I’m sure Mrs May is being sincere when she says that she plans to place a priority on guaranteeing the long term status of the UK’s EU nationals.

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But the Government’s failure to include a commitment to safeguard the residency rights of our EU nationals in the Brexit bill means we have already vacated the high moral ground.

The thought of these hard-working nurses or engineers being used as bargaining chips should make our blood run cold.

Greg Wright is the deputy business editor of The Yorkshire Post.