Sajid Javid can lay claim to the biggest Brexit faux pas of the year this week after he unveiled his post-Brexit immigration policy.
In a year when the government has been found to be in contempt of parliament and the country is taking a course ruled by all experts as being the most torturous it was the Home Secretary that takes the spoils for delivering the most absurd clanger yet.
Citing his parents as an example of immigration’s positives he introduced a policy that would have prevented them from immigrating all those years ago.
Javid, the son of Pakistani bus driver, and his shadow, Diane Abbott, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants (a welder and a nurse) are symbols of what migration has done for Britain – working hard and building its prosperity.
But his new policy would mean that neither of these frontbenchers would be in the position they hold today if the UK had imposed such a salary rule in the 1950s or 1960s.
A bus driver, welder or nurse from Pakistan or Poland would be refused entry, as would workers prepared to take jobs in many other crucial sectors.
Care workers will be turned away. Many NHS workers in general, in fact, would no longer be welcome. The hospitality sector will suffer along with the transport sector, construction sector, service sector.
And all because we have somehow subscribed to the notion that Brexit means, as the Express reported this week, that we are taking back control.
Yet if we cut ourselves off to the many young, able-bodied, tax paying workers that want to work in Britain then we are actually relinquishing it.
Many countries would pay to have that sort of appeal as they struggle to keep hold of people who will contribute to the treasury’s coffers for many years to come.
But that is the absurdity of Brexit. Delivered by none other than the son of an immigrant.
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