Boris Johnson’s approach to immigration doesn’t just reek of racism, it makes no economic sense

The perceived costs of relaxing rules are often myths. In financial terms, free movement of people is a huge benefit to us all, writes Phil Thornton

Checks at the UK border (Getty)

Why is a country whose history and economic make-up has been forged in the cauldron of the global movement of people so rubbish at designing sensible policies on immigration?

The issue has jumped to the top of the economic agenda as we race to hit the year-end deadline to extricate ourselves from the European Union, but it has a long history.

From the Roman invasion 2,000 years ago to the quiet drifting of today’s Brits to the Italian Riviera and other climates well suited to retirement – via the creation of the British Empire and the influx of member of its former subjects to take much-needed jobs in the UK – immigration has been part and parcel of life.