Gove: Brexit has made the UK more welcoming to immigrants

The EU referendum has led to the UK becoming "more welcoming towards migration", environment secretary Michael Gove has said.

The Vote Leave campaigner, who is seen as one of the more pragmatic Brexiters within Theresa May's Cabinet, this morning said the Brexit result was “in part of a vote of confidence in Britain”

Gove insisted the Brexit vote had made unionism stronger, pointing to Tory gains in Scotland at the 2017 election and the decline of Ukip as proof that identity politics – which he characterised as essentially divisive – was in abeyance.

Speaking at a Policy Exchange event, the former justice secretary made much of the UK's "radical, progressive and egalitarian" unionism, slamming the rise of identity politics as being used by people who "want to pit their group against others – oppressors or outgroups – in a conflict for recognition, rights and resources".

Gove rejected claims that the Vote Leave campaign had deployed similar tactics, insisting the reason his side won was "because people wanted to make sure we could have control of our borders, of our taxes, of our laws, and all of that was part of a broader campaign to restore faith in our democratic institutions".

He added: "The referendum campaign has led to Britain becoming more welcoming towards migration, and more open to new people entering”

Latest quarterly figures from the Office for National Statistics showed a drop in the net migration figure as the number of EU workers coming to the UK fell while those leaving increased.

During the same session Gove also backed May's attempt to buy some time over the deadlock that has been reached on the customs debate, telling journalists: "The whole point about the backstop [announced last week] is that its intended not to be implemented, but its there just in case."

Back in April City A.M. revealed that Gove was among those thought to be backing a temporary extension to the customs union as it became increasingly clear that a solution would be hard to find.

This morning fellow Vote Leave campaigner Boris Johnson told journalists on his South American trip that Brexiters should not see the backstop as a "betrayal" but rather give the Prime Minister "space and time" to find a solution.

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CityAM

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