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  1. National

Labour in foreign staff row

Labour's immigration spokesman has modified planned criticism of Tesco and Next over claims they preferred eastern European workers after a preview of his speech drew a furious response from the firms. Tesco said it "absolutely refutes" the claim.

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Bryant: Migrants should be expected to learn English

Chris Bryant MP said having a good standard of English should be a pre-requisite for studying or living in the UK, and that local authorities should spend money on teaching English rather than translating documents.

I heartily agree that a good standard of English should be a pre-requisite for studying or living here. Of course that is not always easy - look at how poorly English living overseas integrate there - but we can and should expect migrants here to learn English, which is why it would make more sense for local authorities to spend money on English courses, teaching English, rather than translation services.

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