JOHN Robertson (Echo Letters, March 6) claims that “he has known for years” that free movement of people within the EU is not working, but like everyone who makes this assertion he gives us absolutely no evidence to back this up.

The actual facts prove exactly the opposite with 1.2 million UK citizens living and working in the other 27 member countries and 2.5 million citizens from those 27 countries working in the UK.

These 2.5 million people represent approximately seven per cent of the UK workforce and with almost full employment in the country (4.8 per cent unemployment), who would fill these work places if we were not fortunate enough to benefit from European free movement?

There are 55,000 EU citizens working in the NHS alone, and once again the treatment we expect would not be possible if it was not for the wonderful advantages that we have received from this free movement of people.

The same can be said for hospitality, agriculture, construction and many, many more industries.

Mr Robertson then says that we should pick and choose who we allow into the country so maybe he could explain, who out of these 2.5 million people he would not have allowed in to work here?

He may also need to explain this to their employers.

Along with these facts the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, explained a few weeks ago on TV that if the UK is to survive outside of the EU that we will need to maintain approximately the current level of immigration for many, many years to come, so I would not expect any radical changes to immigration policy either in or out of the EU.

He seems to believe that God does not like this free movement, when he states that this is not a “God given right”, but I think he will find if he examines history, that borders are actually man made and never came with the planet.

So to conclude, I would like to ask Mr Robertson on what basis he makes his claim on free movement, for it is certainly not evidence based .

TK Tew

Netley Common