It's ironic that the EU did allow a transitional period before countries had to allow free movement, to prevent richer counties being flooded with Poles and the like and the UK turned that down so Polish people looking for work came there from 2004 whereas they couldn't work in Germany till 2011 for example. Now the brexiters tend to blame the EU for having too many Polish turning up when much of it was a UK government choice.
A lot of things in politics and social interaction are ironic.
I would note how the UK government did not want to raise steel tariffs to support Tata's Talbot plant. The reason was that it would increase prices for every consumer of steel. So the UK government blocked the EU's increase of steel tariffs.
What was Boris Johnson's plan? I can't find the interview, but he shared he'd increase tariffs to support UK steel. These are the same tariffs UK's autonomous government blocked - the same tariffs that he 'outsourced the blame' to Brussels for the UK autonomous decision.
Indeed mostly the choice of Tony Blair which he still defends: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/666822/Tony-Blair-migrants-...