Ethel. Why don't you know this? Everyone knows cheap European labour suddenly flooded the market and under cut British workers with more expensive living costs. This happened at the exact same time as the global crash.
But Ethel, surely you know this? Every political party in the UK has now admitted this.
Right, OK, let's break this down.
Firstly, the Eastern European expansion happened in 2004, a good few years before the financial crisis, and the UK was one of the most vehement cheerleaders for those countries' accession.
Secondly, they didn't arrive "overnight", and there were never "millions" of them. Net immigration has been what, in the hundreds of thousands per year? Including non-EU immigration, students, children and plenty of others not actually competing with Darren from Barnsley for all those lucrative plumbing jobs. So it doesn't really equate to "millions" of British people suddenly finding their standard of living destroyed overnight, does it?
You do look daft when you exaggerate like that.
Thirdly, from an evidential point of view, it is not actually clear that those workers have put downward pressure on wages. Which is a bit awkward for the purposes of your argument.
And finally, even if there is a grain of truth in what you say (albeit wildly exaggerated), the UK had the power to limit immigration from those countries, and has always had the power to require EU immigrants to go home if they are not self-supporting within three months. We could take a moment to ponder on the phenomenon of the "Schroedinger's immigrant" - simultaneously stealing our jobs and leeching off our welfare system - but let's just pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that the UK government did not make any effort to reduce or control EU immigration because - and this is the really awkard part - it's been really good for the economy.
Now when those people have gone home (which will not happen because of our immigration policy after Brexit, because we will still need those people, but because the UK will no longer be a pleasant or lucrative place to live and work), you might have "got your country back", but will you be able to get a plumber when you need one? Or someone to take care of your elderly father who has dementia? (Yes I know he'd prefer someone without a strong Lithuanian accent but the reality is that young British people are not actually queuing up to wipe geriatric bottoms for 7 quid an hour.) And the NHS might have fewer immigrants using it but not much since the EU workers we're up in arms about are mostly young and healthy and don't tend to need a lot of healthcare, but there will also be fewer doctors and nurses and a lot less money floating around in the economy to pay for it all.
So who is going to be better off? Who will actually gain from this?