China was only just opening up in the 80s - Deng Xiaoping was reforming China towards capitalism throughout the Thatcher years, but yes its big rise in the 90s

China was only just opening up in the 80s - Deng Xiaoping was reforming China towards capitalism throughout the Thatcher years, but yes its big rise in the 90s slightly pre-dates Blair. Eastern Europe wasn't open to any serious trade in the 80s because it was behind the iron curtain. What rayiner means is that the UK under Labor didn't engage transitional immigration controls like other EU countries did, which combined with being an English-language-first market meant that once the ex-Soviet states were able to join the EU much larger numbers of people migrated from eastern Europe to the UK than in other countries, and then started competing/taking the lower paid jobs. This was a deliberate decision by Labour.