Tony Blair’s Labour authorities pushed on with plans to open the UK’s borders to Japanese Europe regardless of mounting issues from senior ministers, in line with newly launched official recordsdata.
The previous prime minister relaxed immigration controls in 2004 after eight primarily former Soviet states, together with Poland, Lithuania and Hungary, joined the EU.
Papers given to the Nationwide Archives in London present then deputy PM John Prescott and overseas secretary Jack Straw each urged delay to the coverage, warning of a surge in immigration until some restrictions have been put in place.
However others – together with then residence secretary David Blunkett – argued that the financial system wanted the “flexibility and productivity of migrant labour” if it was to proceed to prosper.
The information emerged as a part of a yearly launch of Cupboard Workplace recordsdata as soon as they’re 20 years outdated.
The papers additionally present:
Ministers in Blair’s authorities have been suggested to make use of post-it notes for delicate messages to keep away from having to launch them below new Freedom of Data legal guidelines, which they’d handed.A senior US official warned the British ambassador to the US that George W Bush believed he was on a “mission from God” to crush Iraqi insurgents and needed to be given a “dose of reality”.Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi felt like a “jilted lover” after being shut out of talks between Blair and the leaders of France and Germany.Former prime minister Sir John Main privately wrote to Blair urging him to order England’s cricket workforce to not compete in a “morally repugnant” tour in Zimbabwe amid issues about its human rights document below Robert Mugabe.
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Then overseas secretary Jack Straw had reservations in regards to the plan
Requires open borders re-think
The Blair authorities’s open borders coverage is seen as having helped gasoline anti-EU sentiment by the point of the Brexit referendum in 2016.
There was a serious improve in immigration within the years that adopted, with web migration rising to greater than 200,000 a 12 months and cheaper overseas labour blamed for undercutting native staff.
In 2013, Mr Straw admitted that the failure to place in place any transitional controls – as almost all different EU nations had carried out – had been a “spectacular mistake” which had far-reaching penalties.
In keeping with the Cupboard papers, the Dwelling Workplace had predicted the influence of permitting unrestricted entry to the UK jobs marketplace for the brand new nations can be comparatively restricted – however inside weeks the numbers arriving have been far outstripping earlier estimates.
Three months earlier than the coverage was on account of be applied, Mr Straw wrote to Mr Blair calling for a re-think, warning that different nations “who we thought would be joining us have begun to peel away”.
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Sir Tony Blair on management
“France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece and Luxembourg are all imposing transition periods of at least two years. Portugal is likely to follow suit,” he wrote.
“Italy is undecided. Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark – who were with us – have all announced the introduction of work and/or residence permits for those wishing to avail themselves of the concession.”
He was backed by Mr Prescott who stated he was “extremely concerned” in regards to the pressures on social housing from a sudden inflow of latest migrants.
Nevertheless Mr Blunkett, backed by work and pensions secretary Andrew Smith and the Treasury, insisted they need to keep on with the plan on “economic grounds”.
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Then Dwelling Secretary David Blunkett backed the coverage
He stated that they’d be tightening the rules to cease migrants travelling to the UK merely to assert advantages however rejected requires a piece allow scheme as “not only expensive and bureaucratic but I believe ineffective”.
Mr Blair appeared to additionally categorical doubts, questioning whether or not harder profit guidelines on their very own can be sufficient.
“Are we sure this does the trick? I don’t want to have to return to it,” he stated in a handwritten word.
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“I am not sure we shouldn’t have a work permits approach also. Why not? It gives us an extra string to our bow.”
Mr Blair additionally pressured the necessity to ship out a deterrent “message” about advantages, writing in a word: “We must do the toughest package on benefits possible & announce this plus power to revoke visa plan and message to Romas.”
Bush ‘on mission from God’ in Iraq
Elsewhere within the Cupboard recordsdata, there was a document of frank conversations between Richard Armitage, the US deputy Secretary of State, and Britain’s ambassador to the US on the time, Sir David Manning, in regards to the Iraq Warfare.
In a single assembly, Mr Armitage dismissed claims by the US commander in Iraq that he may put down a serious rebellion within the metropolis of Fallujah inside days as “bulls**t” and “politically crass”, and appealed for Mr Blair to make use of his affect with Mr Bush to influence him there wanted to be a wider “political process” if order was to be restored.
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Tony Blair with George Bush
In one other assembly, Mr Armitage spoke of President Bush being confronted with a “dose of reality” in regards to the battle.
Sir David reported: “Rich summed it all up by saying that Bush still thought he was on some sort of a mission from God, but that recent events had made him ‘rather more sober’.”
Italian PM felt like ‘jilted lover’
Different papers described a fall-out with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi after he was excluded from a trilateral summit of the UK, France and Germany.
He’s stated to have been “hurt” as a result of in contrast to the opposite two nations he had backed Britain and the US over the invasion of Iraq, and threatened to problem Britain’s EU rebate at each alternative because of this.
In a report of a gathering between Britain’s ambassador to Rome, Sir Ivor Roberts, and Mr Berlusconi’s overseas affairs adviser, Giovanni Castellaneta, Sir Ivor wrote: “The gist of what he needed to say was that Berlusconi was feeling badly let down by the prime minister.
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Tony Blair with Silvio Berlusconi inside quantity 10 Downing Road.
“He actually used the image of a jilted lover (very Berlusconi) and added that there was something of the southern Italian about Berlusconi which made him quite vindictive when he thought his affections had been misplaced or betrayed.
“The phrase ‘tradito’ (betrayed) got here up very often.”
The row even came up during a video conference between Mr Blair and Mr Bush the following week, with the US president expressing “some concern in a jokey means, on Berlusconi’s behalf, over Italy’s exclusion”, according to a Downing Street note of the call.
In the face of such concerns, Mr Blair felt it necessary to travel to Rome to personally placate the unhappy premier and assure him of his continuing support.
John Major’s Zimbabwe intervention
The papers also revealed that former Conservative prime minister John Major – who preceded Mr Blair – privately wrote to his successor to urge him to “indemnify” English cricket for any financial losses if it was sanctioned for pulling out of a controversial tour of Zimbabwe.
Sir John, a noted cricket fan, said the tour was “morally repugnant” given Robert Mugabe’s human rights record, but pointed out that “draconian” rules by the world game’s governing body (ICC) imposed penalties on countries for cancelling – putting English cricket at risk of bankruptcy.
The letter came after Mr Blair had told MPs that in his “private opinion” the tour should be abandoned, but it would “step over the correct line” for ministers to subject an instruction
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Sir John Main
Mr Main stated if the federal government “expresses a view” that the tour shouldn’t go forward – or there was a vote in parliament to that impact – then it might be “very difficult” for the ICC to penalise England.
And within the “very unlikely circumstances” that it have been to take action, he stated the federal government ought to indemnify the ICC for any monetary losses.
“I daresay the Treasury would hate this, but the blunt truth is that the government could not let English cricket go to the wall because of a refusal to intervene,” Mr Main wrote.
The tour in the end went forward.
Ministers urged to speak in post-it notes
In the meantime, different papers revealed that ministers in Blair’s authorities have been suggested to make use of post-it notes for delicate messages to keep away from having to launch them below the brand new Freedom of Data (FoI) Act.
The Labour authorities had handed the invoice in 2000, which requires public our bodies to reveal info requested by the general public, however as its full implementation date crept up in 2005 there was rising disquiet about its implications.
One No 10 adviser wrote to Mr Blair suggesting post-it notes – which may presumably then be thrown away as soon as the message had been learn – as a means of getting around the requirement to reveal official materials in response to FoI requests.
