Jacob Rees-Mogg says poorer families will be ‘better off’ after Brexit as unskilled migration drops
Wages will rise and the benefits bill for low-paid East Europeans will fall, the senior Tory MP says
BRITAIN’S poorest families will be better off after unskilled EU migration is cut, a senior Tory MP has claimed.
They will benefit from an increase in wages and a cut in the benefit bill for low-paid East Europeans, according to Jacob Rees-Mogg.
He predicts living standards for the least well off will rise by 15 per cent once we regain full control of our borders.
In a major speech this week to mark a year to Brexit, Mr Rees-Mogg will say freedom of movement has hit the poorest hard.
Mr Rees-Mogg will declare: “They have found that their jobs have been taken by migrants from the EU.
“It would be wrong to criticise these migrants, who are extremely admirable…to move halfway across a continent to a country where you do not speak the language, to work hard to provide a better standard of living for your family is a really noble thing to do.
“But the effect has been to lower wages for the least well off in our own society.
"They have found that their jobs have been taken by migrants from the EU.”
The North East Somerset MP calculates that unskilled migrants receive a 20 per cent wage subsidy from taxpayers costing £3,500 per worker.
The total benefits bill for all EU migrants is £4.1billion a year – about half of which goes to those in work.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
Mr Rees-Mogg will say that cutting unskilled migration from the EU “could help see the living standards of the least well off rise by 15 per cent when we leave the constraints of the single market and customs union.”
He will urge the UK to walk away from talks if the EU insists on us signing up to unacceptable terms.
A 15 per cent pay rise would be worth nearly £2,400 to a worker on the minimum wage putting in 40 hours a week.