UKIP Yorkshire & Lincolnshire
Mandelson 'has to resign'
Friday, 6th February 2009
UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP has called on Lord Mandelson to resign following the minister's response to the nationwide strikes over the employment of foreign workers at the Total oil refinery in Lincolnshire.
"In the face of this outrage over British jobs for British workers, what is our Business Secretary saying? That we can go and work in Europe if we want? That 'it is not European law that has caused this problem'? But it is exactly European law that has caused this problem, law that says that we cannot favour our own."
Mr Farage pointed out that Lord Mandelson is still being paid by the EU. "He gets his salary as a minister from us, £104,000 a year, but he also gets £78,000 a year from Brussels – plus a very generous pension in the future, the whole deal amounting to a cool million pounds.
"And if he doesn't obey his oath to uphold the interests of the Union then they can take it away from him, as they have already tried to do with another retired Commissioner.
"This is such a conflict of interest that he has to resign."
He added: "'British jobs for British workers' was always a lie. We can't do it, we can't change any of this while we remain in the European Union. Past governments sold us, sold the British worker, down the river and unless we get out of this prison of nations there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it.
"It isn't just the oil plants either. At Staythorpe and on the Isle of Grain, the same story repeats itself. New gas fired plants are being built and the local skilled workers aren't even being asked to apply. Foreign labour is being brought in to take their jobs.
"There was great joy when the Olympics was awarded to London. We would be able to rebuild parts of the capital, with local jobs for local workers. And now nearly a third of the workers on the Olympic Park, something we have to pay for with our tax money, are foreign. Yes, it really is that bad, we can't even use our own tax money to support our own people, we have to keep those jobs open for anyone who wants to make the trip here, we're not even allowed to decide who can make the trip to take one of these jobs."
