Press Statement 21 November 2014
Rochester bye-election
and the labour movement
The UKIP victory in Rochester was based on two factors:
First, the 'race card' was used over 'immigration' which actually is the 'free movement of labour' within the EU's single market. Immigration and asylum seekers are external to the EU.
Second, UKIP has cashed in on the general antipathy to the European Union from which austerity policies emanate and much more to the detriment of all forms of democracy.
The answer is for the labour and trade union movement to understand that while Britain remains in the EU and the single market the government cannot control Britain's borders.
More important is that the labour and trade union movement must return to the anti EU policy dropped in 1988. They must drop the pro-EU position taken up on the false premise of a 'Social Europe'. In doing so the electorate would elect the Labour Party and reflect what voters want and take Britain out of the EU. This would also prevent imposition of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which would bolt the EU single market to the US market with the free movement of everything.
The TUC, trade unions and General Council of Trades Councils are opposed to TTIP. That is the policy the Labour Party must adopt for electoral reasons alone.