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Vaz: Extremists are misusing jobs slogan
Joe Murphy, Political Editor3 Feb 2009
LABOUR tensions over the foreign workers row erupted again today after one of Labour's most senior black MPs slapped down Gordon Brown's slogan of "British jobs for British workers".
Former Europe Minister Keith Vaz said the phrase played into the hands of far-Right extremists.
Amid growing concern about the race- relations implications of the dispute, some trade union protesters outside refineries and power stations were replacing posters that displayed Mr Brown's slogan with the less incendiary phrase: "Fair access to local workers". At the same time, it emerged that BNP supporters have set up a website to recruit members by highlighting the protests against contracts going to firms that import overseas labour.
Asked on BBC TV about Mr Brown's phrase, Mr Vaz said: "I wouldn't have used such phrases but I think what the Prime Minister was referring to was apprenticeships rather than jobs.
"The slogan has been used, and misused by the far-Right, giving a misguided impression that somehow British workers at this firm have been denied contracts."
Mr Vaz, a loyalist, criticised trade unions for protesting at foreign workers, saying: "It's so sad to see members of the union involved in what has now got more than a hint of xenophobia."
There was bitter resentment from the unions that Lord Mandelson had claimed the dispute was fuelled by "the politics of xenophobia", suggesting their supporters were racist.
Kenny Ward, of Unite, insisted: "It's not about xenophobia. It's all about the right to get to work a reasonable distance from your home. We want parity, the opportunity to access these jobs."
A chorus of senior Labour figures are demanding more action against foreign firms taking jobs with what many suspect must be underpaid labour forces.
Former Cabinet minister Peter Hain said: "I still find it a puzzle that European companies can come in, bring their labour in, all the costs of accommodating them and transporting them, and then can still abide by national pay rates and conditions of service."
Labour MEP Claude Moraes said there was "growing confusion" over the European laws that the Government says forbids any intervention to reserve jobs for Britons.
Outside the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire where the dispute began strike committee member Phil Whitehurst said the protesters had nothing against the Italian and Portuguese workers whose firm was awarded a £200 million contract to build a new plant.
"People have said it's racist, it's not," he said. "We're not part of the BNP. I've shunned the BNP away from here.
"It's about British workers getting access to a British construction site."
Reader views (56)
EXCELLENT point by Fred in Horsham!
- Roz, Chamonix, France, 04/02/2009 21:21
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I would hope as a Tax Payer that investigations are still going on with this character.
- David,Chertsey, Chertsey.UK., 04/02/2009 18:32
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Vazoline should be aware that his ancestral home, India is far more xenophobic. Its very difficult for British people or companies to get contracts there. Yet we allow India to buy UK companies and their peoples have been allowed into this country for years. I would point out to the self satisfied clot that India didn't want its own peoples back when they were thrown out of Africa. We took them in.
- Fred, Horsham, 04/02/2009 15:05
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For the taxpayers sake lets get this NuLiebor rubbish government out of office, as a matter of extreme urgency.
- Dee Jay, Fleet Hampshire, 04/02/2009 13:48
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The labour hierarchy are terrified their voters will discover how they have been sold down the river to corporate donors. They have devised the strategy of painting strikers as xenophobic racist, hoping this will frighten off any support they may get from the PC obsessed media. Now they have the nod, just watch the creeps rush to do their masters bidding. Vaz is a serial creep (loyalist) and not hard to spot as he has got previous. Neither him or Mandelson have any credibility as both have directly benefited from European Parliament.
- sid, pekham, 04/02/2009 13:13
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Mr Vaz does not reguard himself as "British" in fact its the one word that gaurentees him to start frothing at the mouth and to wet his trousers in rage.
As far as I am aware no BNP have turned up to that dispute they are doing a grand job on thier own.
Mr "Broon" knew when he said "British Jobs for British workers" he just meant "Scottish" and due to the EU it would be illegal to prevent anyone from a member state from working here just because they are not "British".
He either lied (thats a surprise someone in Labour telling Porkys!)or he was clueless.
In the world of the blind (Labour) the one eyed man would be king!
Remember
- Ex Pontefract miner., Pontefract, 04/02/2009 13:08
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Phil Jones.......Well said. It's funny how few people actually realise how much power Brussels has over it's member states and if we (Ireland) ratify the Lisbon Treaty how much that power will increase. If the British want to retain anything British about themselves they need to vote in a party that will withdraw from the EU, the UKIP springs to mind at least they have the balls to make a difference....unlike the current muppets........or should I say puppets?
- Dan, Dublin, Ireland, 04/02/2009 09:56
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Why: does Mr. Vaz not regard himself as British?
- Roz, Chamonix, France, 04/02/2009 09:16
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Thats another fine mess you have got us into Brown. Go away and don't come back.
- James Price, London, 04/02/2009 08:13
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This government has been giving jobs away off the back of an imaginary “skills shortage.” The main example of this is in the IT industry where many of the jobs have been sent off-shore or given to on-shore off-shore resources with fast track visas working in the UK (how did they get away with that one?) This incompetent, out of touch government cannot grasp the concept that there are people who will stick up for themselves, and this won’t be the last time. Now that the economy has gone down the bog it is most definitely time to look after the people of this country. It’s seems crazy to have millions of UK workers on the dole and companies are still using foreign labour. The hell with the bottom line on the balance sheet. These companies will still make ample profits. This is about lives and people.
- Extremely Worried, UK, 04/02/2009 08:10
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The real problem here is that every european country treats EU laws in a different way, and unlike the UK., does so to suit themselves. We also, over the past 50 years, have looked after every kind of immigrant coming to the UK at the expense of the British, thus, we have had hordes of foreigners arriving from everywhere from Timbuktu to Hong Kong, and the British have had to compete with these people for their daily bread, a thing that doesn't happen in any other european country to any extent. With unemployment figures rising, resentment will get worse and something should have been done many years ago.
- jonathan montmorency, cooden, uk., 04/02/2009 07:34
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The strikers should ignore the rhetoric from Mandelson and other politicians when they refer to "xenophobia" or similar incendiary words. Ever since Labour came to power in 1997 they have repeatedly used the "race" card to either deflect attention away from their activities in Europe (EU legislation to the detriment of the English and Welsh. Labour have been creating the environment for social disintegration in the UK, with mass, unfettered immigration, ever since they came to power. If any group can be seen to be culpable for stirring up racial hatred in England and Wales it is the Labour party, not the stiking workers.
- Kris, London, 04/02/2009 07:11
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And you Mr Vaz play right into the hands of people who hate sleaze,lies, playing the race card and speaking down to people. Every time you appears Labour's votes go down.
- Roger, Surrey, 04/02/2009 06:36
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We should pull out of the EU, get rid of this government of has beens and fakers and get some real, genuine leaders with real life experience to lead us. Sadly few of our current politicians on any side has much useful experience. Perhaps we should make new laws that set minimum levels of work experience for people to become ministers and run for parliament?
- Graham, London, 04/02/2009 01:16
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Gordon should have considered the words below before he oened his mouth!
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
[info][add][mail]
Abraham Lincoln
GERONIMO
- GERONIMO, LONDON MIDDLESEX, 04/02/2009 01:04
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Politicians and the Unions hate the BNP because they are like an itch they can't scratch. Everything they predicted has come true, and that is now being realised by the general public. They have been welcomed by the strikers(ignore the lies) because they now realise where that slogan came from. Brown said that to try and pull the rug from under them. All he has done is pull the rug out from under himself.
- Sylvia, Epping. Essex, 03/02/2009 23:36
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Vaz,dont make me laugh,you wouldnt know work or family hardship if it fell on you.Newliebour will get what is coming to them i can assure you and I will be delighted to see you and your ilk put in the political wilderness for decades,your social engineering has at last been rumbled and soon you will be no more.Incidently guys like Frank Fields and quite a few more must despair at what the once proud labour party has become over the past several years due to worship at the table of the EUSSR.Amen.
- roy c, wigan, 03/02/2009 23:20
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The BNP are continuing to get attacks from the mainstream media, from Unite officials, and from the Labour government, but the attackers are, right now, running scared as the power of the people starts to rise against this government and the EUSSR and the forces of globalisation such as the multi-billion pound oil companies.
The Establishment is STILL trying to portray the British National Party's support for striking British Workers as somehow being "Racist". WRONG! The BNP puts ALL British workers, regardless of race, colour, creed or class to the front of the queue for British jobs. The British National Party does not just speak in the support of "White" workers but also in support of all those genuine and legal "ethnic" workers who are just as concerned about their futures as their white counterparts.
No matter why they came here, they are here now and if they are now legally British Citizens, they have equal rights to work and protection also.
Who then are the real "racists", if not the globalists who seek destroy the lives and way of life of ALL British Citizens in their quest to create their One World built on slave labour?
- Lacnunga, Midddle England, 03/02/2009 23:12
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Why did the unions change the banners to "Fair access to local workers" instead of "British jobs for British workers"
The answer is that Unite are hand in hand with NuLiebour
and they are caught in nomans land they just dont know which way to turn. Getting out of the EU is the only answer but Unite wont admit that they are only following NuLiebour instructions.
As for getting out of the EU only two parties are available the BNP and UKIP its up to you.
- Suzzie, Perth, 03/02/2009 22:59
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I have been waiting to work on the refinery site for over 1 year, i have paid for and have the passport for safety and am well qualified to work on the refinery having worked there 7 times with different companies over 30 years. Many years ago the union insisted that nobody from the uk could work on the site unless all the tradesmen in the Grimsby area were fully employed and this worked at all big contracts throughout the UK, that was fair in my opinion, what is happening now is not fair, and for the Goverment to take the stance it has is a disgrace and the politicians have proven that they dont speak for me anymore.
- Phil Taylor, Grimsby, 03/02/2009 22:48
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"British jobs for British workers," will be Gordon Brown's political epitaph.
We should, indeed, put our own people first, but we now know that Labour's empty words are mere bluster.
- David, Newport, South Wales, 03/02/2009 18:00
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At the Euro elections i will be voting for the UKIP as a start. People out there should abandon the three main parties as they have abandon us. It the only way to wake up these buffons in Westminister.
- Joe, Swanley Kent, 03/02/2009 17:38
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Is no-one considering making it illegal that jobs are being advertised solely abroad? I know of companies who bypass paying a necessary wage to British skilled workers by only advertising jobs abroad to cheaper foreign workers. By necessary i mean enough to support a family and pay a mortgage in the UK, not to live in a shared house and sending the majority of your money back to your country of origin.
Considering the stigmatisation of the unemployed in the UK, despite not being able to help being made redundant during a recession, should it not be made illegal for jobs to only be advertised abroad, particularly in Eastern Europe? British workers should always come before foreign workers and the jobs should only be advertised in English in England.
- Paul, london, 03/02/2009 17:31
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The sooner we get this labour trash out the better!!
- John Pritchard, Solihull. West Mids., 03/02/2009 17:10
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"British Jobs For British Workers" was originally a BNP slogan until the man who has never been elected to run this country stole it from them. Presumably at the time Brown thought it had a nice ring to it. Well now and just for once the 'saviour of the world' is going to be kept to his word!
If he had meant something else then why didn't he say something else then Mr Vaz? - you really must think everyone but your supercilious self is completely stupid!
- Derrick, Nottingham, 03/02/2009 16:48
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I saw Vaz on Newsnight last night. He had crawled out from under a stone. He ludicrously claimed Gordon Brown meant British apprenticeships for British workers. Really? Why did he say jobs then? He said the extreme right were all over this, but the SWP were handing out leaflets to strikers - they are on the left.
The EU rule, which the Brown govt supports, is that foreign workers in Britain do NOT get equal pay - they must be offered the skilled pay rates of their own home country and those must not be below our minimum wage. You do not find companies bringing in hundreds of Germans, Dutch or Danes as they earn more or less what we do. They bring in Portuguese and Poles because they earn very much less. Foreign workers in these sort of company-wide importation of labour schemes DO undercut our workers. But they receive benefits at the UK rate, even child benefit which is paid to tens of thousands of foreign kids who have never visited the UK.
There are far more EU foreigners working in the UK than vice versa. The typical Brit in France or Spain is not working, but has retired to somewhere cheaper. The most popular destinations for Brits to work overseas are outside the EU.
- Tom Moncrieff, london W6, 03/02/2009 16:15
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Skills shortages whose fault is it Labours Brown Mandy etc have oput down the English dumbed down the schools in the last 12 years sent everyone to university to study media studies instead of sending academics to university and others who are better with their hands to colleges for vocational skills such as electrician plumbers bricklayers etc. There was a time when any lad leaving school at 16 was able to get a job in construction engineering etc and would be sent on day release. I think this is Browns way of getting rid of the English remember most of his cabinet is Scots. as for Mandy he is a waste of space and public money he has never earned a living at all he has lived off the backs of people and still is he should have all that Brown has given him taken away
- Jacqui Williams, peterborough cambs, 03/02/2009 16:08
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This is the ugly face of unionism and the sooner it is rooted out the better. Threatening, bullying, menacing tactics, patriotism and xenophobia the last refuge of the scoundrel, have no place in modern Trade Union Movement.
- Dhanraj, Basildon Essex, 03/02/2009 16:00
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british jobs for british workers- each country has a different native skill set- prob with this government is that it doesnt protect its native work force. look at IT, how many development jobs and IT support roles have been outsourced to India. and thenin the job center there are thousands of skilled british individuals who no longer have a job. Sold down the river.
- John, london, 03/02/2009 15:57
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Austen, London.
Your comments are pretty naive. If you had been in a position where you weren't even considered for jobs because you were British how would you feel then? Or you had to take a big drop in wages simply to find work?
- P I Staker, London, SW8, 03/02/2009 15:49
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"Vaz:Extremists are misusing jobs slogan" They are, it's Gordon Brown!
- Anon, London, 03/02/2009 15:42
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It's okay for Keith Vaz, Mandy, Brown et al to accuse British workers of xenophobia, simply because MP's are the ones with automatic 'second homes', expense accounts, jobs-for-life-in-the-Lords and no financial burdens. It would do all these suited layabouts good to get their hands dirty and learn what having a REAL job means, and also, know the how they would react if they saw their job being marginalised in favour of 'protected' foreign labour from Europe. Or, is it the real case that all the aforementioned have a vested interest in promoting the ideologies of marginalising British workers in favour of foreign labour? Given Mandy's Europhile views, Vaz's past and Brown's ambitions after PM, it does look that way.
- Joannie, London, England, 03/02/2009 15:41
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I know of an Italian architect who does work in London and elsewhere. He uses workers from Italy because there are few skilled British craftspeople in specialist areas common in Italy, such as marble specialists, or people skilled in laying mosaic tiles.
- Markwright, Milan, Italy, 03/02/2009 15:36
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To Austen, London, don't worry about the BNP we already have a fascist government in place headed by an unelected PM. In the past 11 bitter years we have had our liberties eroded away, we are spied on by more CCTV cameras than the rest of Europe put together, and we are told what we can say and what we can't. We have witnessed a relentless and unremitting attack on middle England and the colonising of our land with immigrants who have been allowed to import their cultures in order to dilute and destroy our own. The Multiculturalisation of our land has sown bitter seeds of resentment and mistrust that has exacerbated the divides between communities. The fascists in charge are getting people to inform on each other and using political censorship to rein in free speech. Yes we have a fascist state that takes no responsibility for its actions and has damaged us far more than the Nazis's in WW2 ever did.
So Austen do not blame the BNP who are growing daily as a response to irresponsible government. Rather blame the cause not the effect.
- Richard K, Nottingham, 03/02/2009 15:31
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Vaz is no better than Brown, if anything his slimey words are boring...
These two are just so good at misleading the people, all the more reason to get rid of them...
- Maria, Barnet, 03/02/2009 15:12
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This has nothing to do with left or right wing. It's simply a matter of justice for our indigenous population.
Vaz needs to remember that the vast majority only agreed to a "common market", and not a "European Union".
Most of us couldn't care less about EU rules and regulations, and ignore them as much as possible. It's only our so called ruling class - who forget that they were elected to serve us, that keep trying to impose EU rulkes.
- Anthony Heath, Godalming, 03/02/2009 15:02
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Brown used the phrase that is causing all the fuss and he did so cynically for party political advantage. Now it has come back to bite him and his party. Good. They deserve all the stick they get for their cynicism.
- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK, 03/02/2009 14:56
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"Let's talk about facts 'cause that's what i believe in. If every country should say local jobs should go to the locals, i guess Britain would have mass unemployment because of the possible returnees from abroad. Let's face the truth the world is changing and it's still going to change further. It's not because you come from somewhere that you would be employed. Every employer needs a talent not just where you come from. Lets face it and stop complaining or blame individuals after all, we all are the child of the universe and we have a right to be here.
- Alex Lisinge, Putney London"
Fool, Britian already has mass unemployment. All the "returnees" coming back to Britain wouldn't amount to much and they could have all the jobs left by the immigrants when they return home.
- Pat, Essex, 03/02/2009 14:54
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Doesn't Mr Vaz class himself as British then?
- Pat, Essex, 03/02/2009 14:51
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Well, Labour in the form of Mr Livingstone in particular said they wanted to make this country just a market place, one that no one cares much about; and so they have, but its a very nasty place indeed, with the people who live here permanently trained for nothing except to collect the dole and shoot each other and demand their 'rights'. So weird they voted for it.
- Helen, norwich, 03/02/2009 14:41
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I agree with Mr Jone's comments:
However, I would like to add that all polititions of whatever peruasion should be very worried at the moment as with the depression of the 1930's the indications are they are all more or less out of touch with the electorate in the UK. The next election will be interesting as I believe alot of people will register a "protest vote" out of desperation. I have voted for the last 30 years and can say neither, Thatcher, Major, Blair or Brown has remotely represented me or my views in all that time.
As for Nu Labour, Mr Vaz has benifitted more than most out of playing the race card. It is hardly surprising today he is regurgitating political dogma from the 1980s/1990's after all it worked for him then.However, he personifies the patronising self interest which will destroy Nu Labour.
The political certanties of the last thirty years have been destroyed along with their dreams of globalisation and capitilism. Polititions will have to do much better in debate than this if they expect to stay in power in the current configeration of parties for the next thirty years.
- Katie, Swansea, S Wales, Swansea, Wales, 03/02/2009 14:24
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Those flirting on the picket line with the BNP would do well to remember that fascist parties, once in government, invariably ban trade unions, stick their leaders in prison (or worse) and outlaw strikes.
- Austen, London, 03/02/2009 14:22
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The usual lies and deception from the Liebore Party.
How many of our MPs are from another EU country, hmmm?
- Ralph, GB, 03/02/2009 13:51
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Somebody should ask Mr Vaz about all the people coming into Leicester from Asia to fill fake skill shortages with fake skills.
- Alan, Llandrindod, 03/02/2009 13:50
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Let's talk about facts 'cause that's what i believe in. If every country should say local jobs should go to the locals, i guess Britain would have mass unemployment because of the possible returnees from abroad. Let's face the truth the world is changing and it's still going to change further. It's not because you come from somewhere that you would be employed. Every employer needs a talent not just where you come from. Lets face it and stop complaining or blame individuals after all, we all are the child of the universe and we have a right to be here.
- Alex Lisinge, Putney London, 03/02/2009 13:26
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Typical Labour. If you don't like what someone has to say call them "racist". Fortunately, after the next election we will not have to listen to this drivel because most Labour MPs will be unemployed. Vaz never adds anything sensible to a debate.
- Anthony, UK, 03/02/2009 13:04
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Should be interesting how this one turns out. The union leadership have always said that anyone that is entitled to work here will be respected no matter where they come from. The reality is this has not gone down well with the grass roots.
- Mike, London, 03/02/2009 13:01
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I was up at Lindsey both yesterday morning and this morning and I can tell you that the BNP has been made welcome despite what some lefty UNITE time-serving officials would have you believe! This dispute is about British jobs for British workers - we're sick of jobs that our lads could and need to do going to foreigners!
- Chris Wilkins, Grimsby, 03/02/2009 12:57
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Keith Vaz is doing what NuLiebour and the liberal left do best, attempting to demonise those who present a threat to their grip on power because they have no substantial or workable policy to counter them.
Gordon Brown used the phrase "British jobs for British workers" in a deliberate attempt to give the impression that he and his duplicitous, Britain-hating government were about to put the interests of indigenous Britons ahead of all else. We now know this to be a lie, as it has been every time this pretence has reared its ugly head.
The ruse has been rumbled and now NuLiebour's spinmeisters are claiming that McBroon meant only that he would ensure that British workers are equipped to compete with foreigners for their own jobs. This shows just how stupid Vaz & Co. think we are.
There are 47000 Britons working across the EU’s 26 other member states, a statistic that is being trotted out by Mandlieson and his sycophantic disciples as justification for allowing foreign workers here. Use of this figure is completely bogus, as it pales into insignificance compared to the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from across the globe that NuLiebour have invited to our shores with the deliberate intention of diluting our national identity and perpetuating their incumbency.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 03/02/2009 12:33
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I wonder how many British people work in Portugal and Italy? - This just goes to prove how racist the working class in GB really are and also their so called Unions who claim to try and bring equality to this world, yea right!
A British Citizen with Portuguese roots!
- Pedro De Sousa, London, 03/02/2009 11:50
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They're at it again, trying to claim Brown's statement "British jobs for British workers" is about "apprenticeships". Labour is at it again, trying to pull the wool over UK voter's eyes.
Brown's statement was nothing more, nothing less than a political agenda and the motive was to deceive the nation into thinking that vulnerable jobs would not be sacrificed on the alter of "immigration" from the EU.
- Bingham Macnamara, lymington, hampshire, 03/02/2009 11:20
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Vaz and Moraes should stay quiet. It adds to the impression that all of Englands problems have been imported.
- Mike Mines, London, 03/02/2009 11:17
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... but the slogan is right!! It should be British jobs for British workers! Nothing else will do!
- Ken Joralemon, london, UK, 03/02/2009 10:53
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What Keith Vaz and the rest of Labour try to avoid is any mention of the various E.U. treaties, that have in effect turned the U.K. into a province of a larger country. They have to keep the 'big lie' going that the U.K. is still a country free to make its own choices. Seventy percent of all new laws in the U.K. are E.U. laws that are rubber stamped by London. Instead of being up-front with people on its existence as a federal government, as are the U.S. and Canadian governments, the E.U. has to hide behind a facade of having the provincial parliaments in London, Paris, Berlin, etc. rubber stamp its laws. In the U.S. you get letters direct from the U.S. government or the particular state government. Here you only get letters from London. It's all deception. Most people in the U.K. still don't appreciate that the new country is the European Union, and their nationality now European. They are no longer 'British' any more than a person in California is Californian. You can be proud of your state/provincial connection, but in the end you are a national of the country you live in. And the British people are living in a country called European Union. At least these strikes are bringing home to more and more British people the reality that Vaz and the rest in London (including the Conservatives and LibDems) are so desperate to keep hidden, namely, that Europeans can work and reside wherever they like in their new country.
- Phil Jones, London UK, 03/02/2009 10:24
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as soon as there is an economic downturn this is what happens. This is just the start.
- Fly, london, 03/02/2009 10:19
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Does it ever enter their tiny, insular minds that others, such as the BNP, may be capable of addressing the issues that main stream parties turn away from?
- Royg, Solihull, ENGLAND, 03/02/2009 10:09
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