Yvette Cooper: Labour should not be arguing to keep free movement

The new Home Affairs Select Committee chair has launched a new inquiry on immgiration which will involve holding public meetings all around the country

Yvette Cooper said Brexit might have been about taking back control of our borders, but to do what with them? (AFP/Getty)

Public meetings in every part of the UK will be at the heart of the Home Affairs Select Committee’s inquiry into immigration which was launched this morning.

The Committee’s new chair, Yvette Cooper, said that successive governments had failed to understand and reflect in policy the country’s wide and disparate views on immigration, a question that is crucial to the Brexit negotiations, but to which there are currently no meaningful answers."Immigration is one of the most important issues facing our country and will be central to the Brexit deal,” she said.

"Britain voted for change, especially on free movement, but there has been very little debate about what kind of reforms or immigration control that should now mean or how we get the best deal for the country.

"Successive governments have failed on immigration and public concern has grown.

"Yet too often the polarised nature of the debate makes it hard to get consensus over what should be done instead. If there is no consensus behind the most important parts of the Brexit deal in the end it will unravel."

The Labour Party in particular has failed to speak with a unified voice on the issue, backing Remain in the referendum, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn publicly backing freedom of movement, while many MPs in northern constituencies spoke out on the issue.

Ms Cooper said: “I said before the referendum that free movement should be reformed from within the EU. We should not be arguing to keep free movement. But that’s my personal view.”

Immigration to the UK from around the world was recorded at 650,000 in the twelve months leading up to the end of June 2016 this year, the highest number recorded. It included a record 284,000 EU citizens.

Net migration - the overall difference between the numbers arriving and leaving the country - was also at a close to peak level of 335,000, well above the Government's target of less than 100,000.