Austerity, not immigration, to blame for inequality

underlying Brexit vote, argues Oxford professor

'Almost all other European countries tax more effectively, spend more
on health, and do not tolerate our degree of economic inequality'

Austerity, rather than immigration, is the key factor that underlying Britain’s decision to
leave the EU, a professor at the University of Oxford has argued.
Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography at the University, claims the fundamental reason
for worsening health and declining living standards in the UK is the growing economic
inequality and public spending cuts that have accompanied austerity, arguing immigration
has been used as scapegoat for these issues.
Writing in the British Medical Journal he says: “Almost all other European countries tax
more effectively, spend more on health, and do not tolerate our degree of economic
inequality.

“To distract us from these national failings, we have been encouraged to blame
immigration and the EU. That lie will now be exposed.”

A YouGov survey in March cited "immigrants willing to work for low wages" as one of
the top three economic problems for leave voters, alongside EU rules and regulations and
the last Labour government.

Leave campaigners, carried to victory on a mandate to reduce immigration, have so far

yet to spell out how many migrants they plan to let in after Brexit.

Following the UK narrowly voting for Brexit, there have been numerous reports of ethnic
minorities and immigrant families being targeted for racial abuse, with police saying the
number of hate crimes recorded for the last two weeks in June has spiked by 42 per
cent on this time last year.

Professor Dorling writes: "The UK has been systematically underfunding education and
training, increasing student loans and debt, tolerating increasingly unaffordable housing,
introducing insecure work contracts, and privatising the services the young will need in
future."
"The UK has benefited greatly from the immigration of healthier than average young
adults, educated at someone else’s expense; many of them work in our health,
educational, social, and care services.

"Their arrival reduced heath inequalities and improved our overall health."

Professor Dorling notes that data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on
the day of the EU referendum, showed there had been 52,400 more deaths in the year to
June 2015 compared with the year to June 2014 in the UK.

“These rises,” writes Professor Dorling, “followed the austerity policies enacted by the
2010 coalition government."

"Self reported health was a key component of David Cameron’s wellbeing index, and it
has declined in every year of his premiership, most rapidly towards the end.”

He warns that the health and social services crises "will deepen as national finances
deteriorate and as it becomes harder to recruit and retain staff from the European
mainland."

Professor Dorling adds that any anger from Remain voters over the referendum result
should "be directed squarely at all the post 1979 UK governments that have allowed
economic inequalities to rise so high; that prevented a fair proportional voting system
being introduced; that have harmed people of all ages; and that have placed future
generations in peril."

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has also said Britain’s vote to leave the European
Union reflects the anger of communities “marginalised” by the Government.

“Many communities are fed up with the cuts they’ve had, fed up with economic
dislocation and feel very angry with the way they have been marginalised by successive
governments,” he said.

“Many of the poorest communities in Britain had the biggest cuts in government
expenditure to support their local authorities and at the same time were refused any
special help to help with issues like school places and health places [affected by
immigration].”