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November 07, 2007 17:33 IST
A leading NRI Labour MP has criticised Prime Minister Gordon Brown's slogan "British jobs for British workers," charging that it amounts to "employment apartheid."
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said that Britain's treaty obligations meant the pledge could not be met and that it was "a false attempt to answer to right-wing propaganda."
Vaz said he was horrified at the rise in "racist comments."
"I am concerned that ideas such as 'British jobs for British people' may only serve to worsen this situation," he said, pointing out that about 800,000 Britons were working abroad, only 300,000 fewer than the estimated 1.1 million migrants employed in this country.
Vaz, a former Europe minister, set out his criticisms during a Commons debate on immigration policy. "I worry about this statement," he said, adding "It lacks credible arguments and some have suggested that it appears to amount to little more than employment apartheid.
"It assumes that foreign workers are somehow stealing jobs from UK workers, an idea for which there is absolutely no evidence. "It also raises the question -- how do you ensure jobs are going to British people and what do you classify as British?"
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