Blair was urged to delay rights for brand new EU staff, information reveal

Senior ministers urged the then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to delay granting employment rights to japanese and central European staff when the EU expanded in 2004, newly-released information have revealed.

In February that 12 months, Overseas Secretary Jack Straw identified that Britain was alone amongst the larger EU members in providing a “concession”.

The concession meant folks from Poland and different newly-joined EU international locations would have the ability to work in Britain after 1 Could.

Virtually all the opposite giant states wouldn’t enable this for 2 years: solely Italy was undecided. Smaller EU international locations, except for Eire, had work allow schemes which might restrict numbers.

Papers from the Nationwide Archives – which have been launched now they’re 20 years previous – present Straw proposed a six-month delay for the UK.

He mentioned: “I imagine we may very well be confronted with a really troublesome scenario in early Could”.

He warned the UK may “be pressured to revoke the concession within the least propitious of circumstances”.

His letter was copied to different senior ministers, and the then-deputy prime minister John Prescott supported Straw.

Prescott wrote that he was “extraordinarily involved” concerning the potential influence on social housing.

He was additionally fearful that many staff would come to London and the South East, and unable to search out respectable housing would “resort to sharing overcrowded housing in poor circumstances”.

However David Blunkett, the then-home secretary, argued the financial system wanted the “flexibility and productiveness” these new staff may present.

Eight japanese and central European international locations joined the EU in 2004, together with Poland. In keeping with the federal government, the variety of Polish nationals dwelling within the UK elevated from round 69,000 to round 853,000 over the following decade.

Blair requested whether or not the UK may have work permits, however as an alternative the Dwelling Workplace speedily drew up a “staff registration scheme”.

That scheme required A8 staff – these from the eight new member states – to pay a charge and register their employment in a particular job. Failing to take action would incur a big fantastic.

From Could 2004 onwards, No 10 monitored these registration numbers week by week.

The federal government was notably fearful as a result of it had publicly estimated that solely 13,000 new staff a 12 months would come to Britain after the EU expanded.

The information present that Kate Gross, one of many personal secretaries at No 10, wrote to the prime minister on 2 July 2004.

She enclosed a briefing notice for the press which might say “the inflow of latest arrivals predicted by the media merely hasn’t arrived”, despite the fact that that 13,000 had been exceeded.

She defined that whereas 24,000 folks had registered with the scheme, most had been dwelling within the UK earlier than 1 Could.

Kate Gross’s memo notes that almost all had been younger, aged 18-34 – and there was no proof of them “exploiting the advantages system”. Blair scrawled “that’s the key” by the aspect of that assertion.

Nevertheless Kate Gross famous “the important thing elephant lure is how these figures relate to earlier HO [Home Office] projections”.

If purposes continued to extend, she wrote, the variety of new arrivals would hit “50-60,000 by Could 2005”.

The following set of figures for the scheme confirmed a drop, and a briefing paper to No 10 mentioned: “It seems like we’re over the height in purposes.”

The Immigration and Nationality Directorate “must be congratulated on implementing the employees registration scheme in brief order”, it mentioned.

The issue was, the scheme wasn’t offering an correct report.

The self-employed didn’t must register, for instance, which excluded many constructing staff like carpenters.

And there was little enforcement.

The shortcomings of the employees registration scheme had been uncovered in late 2005, when based on the WRS there have been solely 95 Polish plumbers in the entire of the UK.

In 24 hours the Day by day Mail discovered 95 Polish plumbers in London alone.

Over the following few years tons of of 1000’s of A8 nationals, largely Polish, moved to the UK.

Although many have now returned, the 2021 census reported 743,000 Polish-born folks resident in Britain.