‘End free movement NOW’ Union boss says EU migration only helps rich to hire cheap nannies

A TOP union figure has tonight launched an extraordinary attack on EU free movement rules, saying Britain’s working classes have been betrayed so rich establishment figures can hire cheap nannies and butlers.

Gerard Coyne, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa MayPA/Twitter

Unite leadership candidate Gerard Coyne has blasted freedom of movement

In an eviscerating assessment of successive governments’ approach to border control, Gerard Coyne argued mass migration has helped widen inequality between the haves and have-nots in broken Britain. 

He tore into the establishment’s claims that Brexit will bring economic disaster, saying Britain will prosper and flourish outside the EU and should leave the single market. 

And in a series of devastating remarks he said the rich and powerful wanted to keep freedom of movement because it allowed them to hire cheap nannies and cleaners whilst watering down the wages of British workers. 

His jaw-dropping outburst will heap huge pressure on Theresa May to prioritise regaining control of immigration over single market access in the upcoming Brexit negotiations. 

Theresa May and Jean-Claude JunckerGETTY

Theresa May has been urged to prioritise border controls in upcoming Brexit talks

A Brexit supporterGETTY

Mr Coyne said voters would feel betrayed in free movement is maintained

Mr Coyne, who is battling to become the next leader of the Unite union, warned that ordinary workers will feel “betrayed” and angry if the PM caves into Brussels over free movement. 

His comments, to be made in a speech to union activists in Birmingham tomorrow, place him squarely at odds with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has repeatedly refused to consider any change to EU migration rules. 

Unite is Labour’s biggest financial backer, and if Mr Coyne succeeds in unseating current chief Len McCluskey he would make the party leader’s position increasingly untenable. 

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock: Free movement isn't an option

There can be no compromise on the principle of taking back control of our borders

Unite's Gerard Coyne

Tearing into free movement, the union chief will say: “The better off have been able to hire Europeans as their cleaners, or nannies, and have their cars washed at little cost, by people eager to work and prepared to accept what are, by UK standards, low wages.

“But for the many Britons facing insecurity in the job market, who rely on public services such as the NHS and state schools, and who need affordable homes, the presence of a very large number of foreign nationals has added to the pressures they already face at a time of austerity.

“Theresa May and other ministers should not wait until Article 50 has been triggered to set out a negotiating position on free movement of labour. They should be saying now, without equivocation, that the issue is non-negotiable. 

“There can be no compromise on the principle of taking back control of our borders.” 

And Mr Coyne, who is currently Unite's West Midlands regional secretary, fired off a warning to Mrs May, telling her voters will not let her go back on the mandate delivered by the June 23 referendum. 

He blasted: "My many conversations with Unite members leave me in no doubt that those who voted for Brexit expect that promise of an end to uncontrolled immigration from the EU to be kept, and will feel betrayed if it is not. 

"Let us not fool ourselves. Brexit means exit. It means a world in which we have to be competitive enough to thrive outside the single European market."

Mr Coyne’s outburst will be seen as an attempt to reconnect with millions of disenfranchised working class voters, particularly in northern England, who have been deserting Labour under the leadership of Mr Corbyn and his gaggle of metropolitan Islington elites. 

It comes after the shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer called for an end to free movement, saying the party needed to have a “fundamental rethink” of its immigration policies. 

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