Buried among the dozens of urgent tasks for the government is the need to develop a new post Brexit immigration policy and this is being discussed in cabinet apparently (HERE). Andrea Leadsom says she wants a level playing field with no special access for EU citizens to UK residence.
However, this is not the most significant point in the Sky New report which adds:
The Cabinet discussions on post-Brexit immigration systems come as the Government postponed plans for an immigration bill until the autumn, prompting a backlash from business and MPs.
The bill had been pencilled to come to the House of Commons in January, with a white paper originally promised last summer. It will now not be released until after a transition deal with the EU is agreed, pencilled in for March.
Yvette Cooper, chair of the House of Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee, described the situation as a "shambles" in an urgent question in Parliament this week.
"We know that the Prime Minister wants people arriving after March 2019 to be treated differently, but we have no idea how," said the former shadow home secretary.
A Bill had been promised for January but now a white paper won't come until after March but we don't know when. Immigration minister Caroline Nokes said an immigration white paper would be published "in the coming months". You cannot rustle up an immigration policy just like that. It takes a lot of time and a lot of consultation with communities and business. Only once you have some sort of consensus can you proceed to policy and legislation. And only once it is finalised can you plan to staff up the Home Office and the border force to deal with it.
We are behind schedule on this and you can bet we're behind schedule on just about every other area of policy. The absence of clarity in cabinet is having a knock on effect with everything else.
