It's "inevitable" that borders between countries will cease to exist by the end of this century, John McDonnell has said.
On the BBC's Sunday Politics, the shadow chancellor urged politicians to begin preparing for a world where borders are "irrelevant" and said the system of border checks was already beginning to break down.
"Inevitably, in this century, we will have open borders," predicted the shadow chancellor. "We're seeing it in Europe already – the movement of peoples across the globe will mean that borders are almost going to become almost irrelevant by the end of this century."
He identified war, poverty, and climate change as the three main reasons people are forced to move from one country to another and said politicians should be tackling each of those issues to prepare for a borderless world.
"We're seeing people ignoring borders already as they fly from Syria," he said. "Therefore what we should be doing is making sure there is no forced movement, we look at the push and pull factors. We ensure we have, as I say, conflict prevention, tackling of inequality, and policies that tackle climate change.
"In that way we can cope with the global pressures that come with regard to population and population movement."