On the BBC’s
Newsnight programme on Friday, pro-Brexit Tory MEP Daniel Hannan told
presenter Evan Davis that a vote to leave the EU does not necessarily
end free movement of labour. Taken aback by the statement, Davis
retorted that the public had been put through ‘three months of
agony’ on the issue of immigration, a core message supported by the
leave campaign
The leave campaign
has appeared to row back on key pledges made during the EU referendum
campaign less than 24 hours after the UK voted for Brexit, after it
emerged immigration levels could remain unchanged.
Leading Brexit
figures had disagreed throughout the campaign on issues including
immigration, free movement and the cost of the UK’s EU membership.
But within hours of
the result on Friday morning, the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, had
distanced himself from the claim that £350m of EU contributions
could instead be spent on the NHS, while the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan
said free movement could result in similar levels of immigration
after Brexit.
Hannan said:
“Frankly, if people watching think that they have voted and there
is now going to be zero immigration from the EU, they are going to be
disappointed.”
His comments came
after the leave camp made voters’ concerns about the impact of
immigration on jobs, infrastructure and the NHS a key part of their
campaigning.
There had been no
suggestions of changing the status of any EU nationals in Britain,
Hannan told the BBC, adding that no one had said this might be the
case in the event of a leave victory.
“All we are asking
for is some control over roughly who comes in and roughly in what
numbers.”
The issue is the
latest area where leave campaigners appeared to be walking away from
pledges made during the campaign, following Farage’s admission on
Friday morning that the pledge plastered all over the official Vote
Leave battle bus to spend money recouped from the EU on the NHS was
“a mistake”.
Meanwhile, Liam Fox
cast doubt on the necessity of triggering the article 50 clause of
the Lisbon treaty that sets out the legal process for a country’s
EU withdrawal.
“A lot of things
were said in advance of this referendum that we might want to think
about again and that [invoking article 50] is one of them,” said
the Conservative MP.
“I think that it
doesn’t make any sense to trigger article 50 without having a
period of reflection first, for the cabinet to determine exactly what
it is that we’re going to be seeking and in what timescale.
Ratings agency
Moody’s has lowered the outlook for the UK’s credit rating from
stable to negative amid what it said would prove a prolonged period
of uncertainty following Britain’s vote to leave the European
Union.
Moody’s said the
unpredictability of British decision-making had factored into its
move, as had the likelihood of lower economic growth, which it said
would outweigh any savings the UK might hope to get from not having
to contribute to the EU budget.
“Over the longer
term, should the UK not be able to secure a favourable alternative
trade arrangement with the EU and other countries, the UK’s growth
prospects would be materially weaker than currently expected,” the
agency’s note said.
Standard and Poor’s
has also warned that Britain’s top “AAA” credit rating was at
risk.
Britain’s vote on
Friday to leave the EU has sparked widespread turmoil and
uncertainty, forcing the prime minister David Cameron to resign and
wiping more than $2tn (£1.46tn) of value from markets around the
world.
The governor of the
Bank of England has stepped forward to calm financial markets after
the Brexit vote sent the pound to its lowest level since 1985 and at
one point wiped £120bn off the value of Britain’s leading shares.
Amid fears that it
could spark a fresh global financial crisis, Mark Carney said
Threadneedle Street was ready to do whatever was needed to mitigate
the impact of Britain’s vote to leave the EU. City traders quickly
responded by placing bets on an interest rate cut by the end of the
year.
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