Anne Moffat

Labour Party | East Lothian

East Lothian MP Anne Picking Secures Assurances That There Are No Illegal Workers At East Lothian Mushroom Farm

Anne Picking MP has received assurance from Des Brown MP Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration that over a 100 workers who are from mainly Eastern Block countries and are employed by Monaghan Mushrooms at Fenton Barns in East Lothian are not in this country illegally.

Anne Picking said “I am pleased that I can now reassure the people who approached me that all the foreign workers employed at Monaghan’s Mushrooms are in this country legally.

And I applaud the responsible way in which local people and the local workforce have approached their concerns. It is sometimes all too easy to rush for a sensational headline which can result in fuelling a small minority of people’s misinformed prejudices.

I believe that this disciplined and measured approach has allowed a proper and thorough investigation into people’s genuine concerns while at the same time not pandering to any racist agenda.

However, I do remain concerned about the way this company is treating its workforce. Local workers have terms and conditions that should be respected and foreign workers should not be exploited by using dubious third party employers.

It is totally unacceptable that migrant workers are coerced into working excessive hours with low pay and exorbitant accommodation costs and it is equally unacceptable that local workers are squeezed out because they refuse to compete on those terms.

As a co-sponsor of the Private Members “Gangmaster’s Bill” which is going through Parliament at the moment I recognise that immigration is high on the agenda but concern must never be allowed to slip into prejudice and become racism.

Recognition of the benefits that controlled migration brings to this country and its people must be the goal we strive for. Now is the time to make the argument for controlled migration simultaneous with tackling the abuses we can identify.”