Blocking a post-Brexit free movement scheme for the young is spiteful – and they will get their revenge

Rejecting a deal that would allow young people to live and work in the EU is a pointless nonsense, says Chris Blackhurst

The hospitality industry is struggling without a steady stream of young staff (Getty/iStock)

One friend owns four Italian restaurants in central London; another chairs a company that operates a chain of nationwide gastropubs and small hotels.

They make the same complaint, loudly: that they cannot get the staff, and that in the past they were able to employ young folk from the EU, who would willingly work long hours, serve and clean. Not since the referendum. Try as they might, they’ve been unable to find the British equivalent. The result is that their short-staffed service is not as it should be, so they’ve had to close earlier or shut completely on days when previously they would have been open.

It’s a message that is repeated right across the country. From the Highlands to the Lake District to Cornwall, as this tourist season gets underway, there will be places that cannot cope and would rather not open at all on some days than provide a poor experience.

I ran into this problem in the Lakes. We wanted a table at a well-known pub renowned for its excellent food; the lady on the phone said we could have one, but warned us to expect a long wait. Frankly, she said, we’d be better off going somewhere else. Ever since Brexit it had been like this, and it wasn’t showing signs of improving.

This is just in hospitality; similar problems are relayed by those who operate in other sectors – not enough workers, orders from the EU taking an age, supply-chain delays and added costs. By now, we should be basking in the advantages of Brexit; having long left the EU, we are supposed to be reaping those promised benefits.

Yet, struggle as I might, I can’t see them – certainly, if there are any at all, they’re outweighed by the downsides. But the attitude of our Brexit-supporting media and politicians is to bury their heads in the sand, and proclaim in their brook-no-opposition manner: “Get over it.”

They said as much this week, as the government rejected an agreement with the EU to allow young people to move freely between the bloc and the UK in order to study, work and live abroad. At a stroke, that would have solved my pals’ issues, and those of countless other businesses.

More than that, it would have given young folk the opportunities they crave and deserve – which we oldies had and enjoyed and have now denied to them. It was simply kiboshed. There was no debate, no national discussion. The youth were not spoken to and asked what they wanted. Rishi Sunak says no.

Labour, which continues to be all over the shop where the EU is concerned, as Keir Starmer and his strategists fret about attracting Brexiteers back to the party, went along with the Tory decision and did not countenance the proposal.

Only the Lib Dems were in favour, with Ed Davey describing the idea as a “win-win-win”. “Liberal Democrats have long been urging the government to negotiate a reciprocal youth mobility scheme with Europe,” he said. “Of course, the details would need to be negotiated, but no sensible UK government would reject this idea out of hand.”

The use of the word “sensible” is deliberate. To squash the scheme, just like that, is a nonsense.

A government spokesperson said: “We are not introducing an EU-wide youth mobility scheme – free movement within the EU was ended, and there are no plans to introduce it.

“We have successful schemes with 13 countries, including Australia and New Zealand, and remain open to agreeing them with our international partners, including individual EU member states, where it’s in the UK’s interest and supports the skills and opportunities of our youth.”

Selectively negotiating such agreements with 13 countries is no replacement for what has been lost, and they know it. If it were, why would my friends and others still be suffering from a lack of suitable staff? Why would MPs be reporting that young people are writing to them to voice their anger?

Remarkably, what’s forgotten here is the fact that those very same young people are the future. The two main political parties can ignore them, but they do so at their peril – those youngsters will one day be in the ascendant, able to vote and to dictate who is in power and which policies should be pursued.

Across the country, pubs and restaurants would rather not open at all than provide a poor experience (PA)

That’s why John Curtice, the polling guru, is confidently predicting another EU referendum within the next 16 years. Britain’s attitude to Europe is set to change, he says, as younger people in the UK become eligible to vote and elderly Brexiteers drop off the electoral register.

Ammunition for his argument is provided by the Tory peer Michael Ashcroft. A study conducted by Ashcroft suggests that younger voters were far more likely to vote Remain than older voters. His survey found that older people were more likely to vote to sever ties with the EU.

That balance is shifting all the time – and while they can be dismissed now, in years to come, the demands from young people to be readmitted are set to grow.

A poll published last year by the Tony Blair Institute found that more than half of voters believe Brexit was the wrong decision. Based on a survey of 1,525 adults and carried out at the start of June, the poll found that just over a third (34 per cent) still believe that Brexit was the correct decision.

That trend against Brexit is only going to continue, culminating in a second referendum and a Remainer victory. In the meantime, closing down debate about something so many UK young people desire smacks of pettiness and spite, and is unforgiveable.