British election: Aussies to be treated the ‘same as French’, says Sajid Javid

Immigration into Britain would be lower and Australians would be treated the same as the French if Boris Johnson wins.

British Chancellor Sajid Javid campaigning in Uttoxeter on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Immigration into Britain would be “certainly lower” and Australians would be treated the same as the French or Americans if Prime Minister Boris Johnson won the election, Chancellor Sajid Javid has told The Australian.

A switch to an Australian points-based system would end EU citizens’ special right to live and work in Britain, he said, while warning of economic chaos were Labour to win.

“We want a more sustainable level, not having any arbitrary quotas or numbers … but certainly lower,” Mr Javid said, lauding the Australian system that Mr Johnson had twice praised in a nationally televised debate on Friday.

“It will be based on what people contribute to Britain. We need more NHS workers, more scientists, more wealth creators. At the moment, it means a preference for EU citizens and that will dis­appear,” he said.

Frustration with uncontrolled immigration from the EU underpinned Britain’s vote in 2016 to leave it, which the Conservatives hope to fulfil on January 31 if they win the election against Labour, whose leader, Jeremy Corbyn, promises another referendum.

After Mr Johnson became Prime Minister in July, the Conservatives, in power since 2010, backed away from a pledge by former leader Theresa May to reduce net immigration to under 100,000 a year. While net immigration from the EU has fallen to 60,000, ­almost 2.4 million EU nationals were working in Britain in June, up 99,000 from a year earlier, according to British government sources.

The former home secretary, who became Chancellor in July following Mrs May’s replacement at No 10, said a Labour victory would be “absolutely disastrous” for Britain.

“On the Labour side, you’ve got the most anti-business anti-­enterprise, most left-wing manifesto you’ve ever seen. It’s not even taking us back to 1970s, it’s worse than that, worse than anything we’ve seen,” he said.

The Conservatives have promised to lift spending on the National Health Service and police.

“Corbyn and his team have been deliberate in trying to mislead people, and unfortunately some people are falling for his false ideas that everything can be free, including broadband,” Mr Javid said.