Labour to clarify migrant workers policy

THE Labour Party is to publish a ‘substantial’ policy paper to set out the thinking behind leader Pat Rabbitte’s comments on the displacement of Irish workers by migrant labour.

Mr Rabbitte’s claim that it might be necessary to introduce job permits for migrant workers from EU countries provoked claims that he was playing the ‘race card’.

Yesterday, seven activists from within Labour wrote to national papers distancing themselves from the concept which they described as “disgraceful and (that) flies in the face of what Labour stands for”.