George Eustice, the former environment secretary, is calling for a reciprocal visa scheme so that under-35s can work across the EU and Brita
A leading Tory Brexiter on Sunday calls on ministers to reopen the UK’s borders to tens of thousands of young workers from EU nations in order to tackle acute post-Brexit labour shortages that he says are driving up inflation. In an extraordinary admission of the failures of immigration policy since the UK left the EU, former Tory environment secretary George Eustice said Rishi Sunak’s government should begin bilateral negotiations with EU nations immediately, with a view to offering young Europeans under 35 the right to two- year visas to work in this country. Eustice, who was secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs under Boris Johnson, said the deals should be reciprocal so that young UK citizens under 35 would be able to live and work for two years in the same EU member states with which deals were struck. This, he said, would be part of a much-needed “post-Brexit reconciliation” with our European neighbours. Speaking exclusively to the Observer, Eustice, who is leaving parliament at the next election, was highly critical of the Home Office, saying its skills-based immigration rules were failing the country on many levels. […] He blamed Theresa May when she was prime minister for failing to adopt bilateral visa schemes with EU countries after Brexit, which he said he had always supported. “This idea of having no temporary visa schemes was not from the Vote Leave campaign,” Eustice said. “It came predominantly from Theresa May. It was a remainer’s interpretation of what Brexit was about. That was not what Brexit was about. People wanted controlled immigration and not to pull up the drawbridge and allow no one in at all.”
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Theresa May is a sociopathic bitch who picked up the non-binding brexit vote and ran with it but putting the blame on remainers is what brexiter have been doing whenever a brexit failing turns up. The idea that it was May's fault is ridiculous. All her plans were rejected as not brexity enough. That's why she was replaced by Bojo the Clown. He could have changed anything in the plans she left behind. His team tinkered with one of her plans but did nothing to the section on immigration, certainly didn't ask for temporary visas for under 35s. The Clown and his team are to blame for the mess that is brexit.
Eustice served under Cameron, May, and Johnson, always in the same department. He would have been one of the ministers consulted about immigration, since a lot of agricultural work relies on seasonal workers. He should have known what would happen yet apparently said nothing.
