Labour needs clear message on EU immigration, MPs tell Corbyn

Labour MPs demanded a clearer message from Jeremy Corbyn on freedom of movement in the run-up to crucial by-elections in Copeland and Stoke.

Backbenchers called for clarity on EU immigration when they attended the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) last night, on the eve of Theresa May’s much-anticipated speech on Brexit today.

MPs spoke out after Corbyn last week said Labour was “not wedded” to the principle of freedom of movement but then appeared to adjust his position when he told the BBC: “We are not saying that anyone could not come here because there would be the right of travel and so on.”

Last night Corbyn repeated his vow to resist any attempts by the Tories to transform Britain into a “bargain basement” economy on the edge of Europe, in response to apparent threats to slash taxes and regulation from by Philip Hammond, the chancellor, when he spoke to a German newspaper.

Corbyn used the meeting to set out his line on EU immigration, aides said afterwards.

“He spelt out again the kind of things that he said last week and has said subsequently over the weekend, that we’re not wedded to free movement as an issue of principle but that the priority for Labour in relation to Brexit negotiations is jobs and living standards,” one aide said last night.

“And that obviously there’s an issue around tariff-free access to the European market, but that the kind of intervention and regulation of the labour market that we have talked about repeatedly, and Jeremy was talking about during the referendum campaign, and he spelt out in more detail last week [would have an impact on the number of people coming to Britain].”

One MP leaving the meeting said the session had been “subdued”, in contrast to some of the stormy sessions which featured in Corbyn’s weekly gatherings with the PLP last year.

Corbyn and his senior colleagues have been under pressure to better frame Labour’s message on freedom of movement amid fears Labour’s vote could be squeezed in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central – which both voted Leave – by a combination of Tories delivering Brexit, UKIP campaigning on immigration and a Lib Dem party pushing a pro-EU to people on the centre-left.