Zack Polanski has urged politicians to stop fuelling fear and start telling the truth about immigration.
During an appearance on Robert Peston’s ITV show, the Green leader said the British public weren’t wrong to have concerns about migration.
But he pointed out how the public are being ‘pumped’ with negative stories about migration from politicians and parts of the media.
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Polanski suggested politicians weren’t telling the truth about migration, and that the issues in the UK are down to the rich not being taxed enough.
When Peston implied that Polanski was in fact saying voters are wrong to be concerned about immigration, the politician responded: “No, I’m not. It’s just that 5% of migration is small boats but I think it covers about 95% of the coverage we hear about.
“We need politicians to tell the public the truth, and to make sure we’re winning people over, and that the problems in the country are down to multi millionaires and billionaires.”
He also explained how bringing down controlled migration would be ‘ludicrous’, pointing to how there are 150,000 job vacancies in the NHS.
Polanski said migrants help fill huge skill gaps in the UK economy, and this shouldn’t be ignored in conversations about migration.
Polanski went to say that the UK’s diversity is “one of the best things about this country.”
“This country was built on migration,” he said. “Of course we should celebrate people who were born here but also people who come here and make this their home too.
“I think that’s part of being a patriot: a caring and compassionate approach towards others. I think that’s part of being British.
“Cultural coherence isn’t something for politicians to do, that’s for communities to do. We had 14 years of Conservative austerity that’s destroyed integration, because we don’t have community centres, we don’t have arts and culture, And we need to do that collectively.
“It’s for communities to create social cohesion.”