Migrants curbs ‘will help lowest-paid Britons’

THERESA May yesterday insisted new curbs on unskilled migrants were needed to protect the incomes of Britain’s lowest-paid workers.

After a row over the leak of Home Office plans for post-Brexit border controls, the Prime Minister defended the Government’s drive to cut net migration once the country has left the EU.

And she warned that mass migration had depressed the wages of the country’s poorest households.

Earlier this week, leaked draft proposals in an 82-page Whitehall document suggested ministers wanted immediate curbs on low-skilled European migrants after the country leaves the EU in 2019. Home Office and Downing Street officials refused to comment on the leak, while some critics claimed the proposals could lead to labour shortages.

But Mrs May appeared to confirm to MPs that the Government was drawing up sweeping curbs that will limit entry to highly-skilled migrants in a drive to prioritise British workers.

Asked about the leak at Prime Minister’s Questions, she said: “Overall immigration has been good for the UK, but people want to see it controlled.”

She said migration had an impact on “access to services and on infrastructure, but crucially also because it often hits those at the lower end of the income scale hardest”.

Earlier, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said the Government wanted a new balance in border policy.

He said: “There is obviously a balance to be struck – we don’t want to shut the door, of course not.

“We have always welcomed to this country those who can make a contribution to our economy, to our society, people with high skills.

“On the other hand we want British companies to do more to train up British workers, to do more to improve skills of those who leave our colleges.”