London Tory MEP Syed Kamall has today revealed he is joining the campaign for a Leave vote.
In an exclusive interview with the Standard, the senior Conservative said he is backing Brexit because EU rules unfairly stop talented immigrants coming to the UK from outside Europe.
“People should be treated equally whether they are from Austria or Australia, from Croatia or the Caribbean, from India or Italy,” he said. “Sadly, that’s not possible within the EU.”
Mr Kamall said there were deep “uncertainties” about where a Remain vote would lead, saying the European Commission is quietly planning further political integration, including a European Army.
But the former business consultant admitted leaving the EU could mean “some displacement” of jobs and trade out of the City of London.
“I have really struggled with it,” said Mr Kamall, who played a role as go-between for the Prime Minister and Brussels power brokers at last month’s summit. The MEP is chairman of the 71-strong Conservatives and Reformists group, the third largest group in the European Parliament.
A second-generation immigrant whose father came to Britain from Guyana in the Fifties, Mr Kamall said the deciding factor was the “inequality” created by EU free movement rights.
“I’ve always wanted a fair immigration policy, where people are treated equally whether they are from an EU country or elsewhere,” he said. Under free movement, Poles and Hungarians are free to work in the UK, which has led the Government to tighten requirements on people from non-EU countries.
Mr Kamall revealed a conversation with a senior minister from one of the eastern EU states that made clear EU immigration could soar after the referendum.
Speaking of George Osborne’s plan for a National Living Wage of £9 by 2020, the minister exclaimed: “You do realise our minimum wage is about £2 an hour. Please don’t do that, we will lose even more talented people.”
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Mr Kamall said he had become worried about the “uncertainty” of staying in. “The EU will change a lot in five to 10 years — you can’t be certain what staying in will look like,” he said.
He predicted Britain will come under irresistible pressure to surrender the pound once all 27 other countries have signed up to the euro.
He did not believe European Parliament leaders would try to water down Mr Cameron’s deal, but said gaps in the agreement, such as how much benefits for EU migrants will be cut by, meant the public “will be voting on faith”.
He said there was a split in the financial services industry over whether Brexit would damage the City of London, and conceded: “On balance there might be some displacement … it would depend what the details of an EU-UK relationship looked like.”
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