THIS General Election, and the implications for Brexit of the result, has been watched with interest around the world, including in Australia, where news.com.au has been pondering the possible effects of a Tory win.
It said such a result could complicate life for Australians living and working in the UK, who would face tougher immigration laws, after Theresa May’s pledge to bring the figure down to tens of thousands from over 200,000.
Immigration became something of a running sore for the last UK Government with several, high-profile instances of foreign nationals living and working in Scotland being caught up in battles with the UK Home Office over their right to remain.
Several cases are still outstanding, but earlier this year a Canadian family of seven were forced to leave their Highland home after living in Scotland for almost 10 years.
Jason and Christy Zielsdorf and their five children lived in Laggan in the Cairngorms, where they ran a lifeline shop and bothy. But after spending tens of thousands of pounds fighting to stay and investing their life savings in the business, they left before the Home Office could deport them.
Scottish voter James Forrester, 21, told the Australian website that for him, Brexit and Scottish independence were top of the agenda, and he considered “which leader presents the strongest deal from the Brexit negotiations”.
The London-based student said he wanted to see Britain gain “tariff-free access to EU single market” through Brexit. He also wants Scotland to remain part of Britain and avoid a second indyref.
Meanwhile, a senior market analyst told the website a Tory win would be good news for financial markets down under. Craig Erlam, a senior analyst for OANDA, warned “things could get messy” for currency markets there was no clear Tory majority.
“With sterling trading at near nine-month highs against the dollar... it is vulnerable to a sharp decline if things don’t go as planned. Should we see a hung parliament then things could get messy,” he said.
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