Immigration, say 7 in 10 voters
Britons back visas for doctors but go cold on baristas and bankers
More than 771,000 EU nationals are employed in London, according to a study for London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
They make up a quarter of finance and insurance staff, nearly a fifth of hospitality and distribution and 18 per cent of the health and education work- force. Cutting out European workers would wipe out £7 billion of economic output and cost the Treasury £2 billion in tax payments, the study estimated.
Chief executive Colin Stanbridge said: “What is crucial is that we are able to attract the skills that London so desperately needs to remain competitive BRITONS want skilled Europeans to continue to be allowed to work in Britain after Brexit — but are against baristas and bankers getting special visas.
Eight in 10 people said doctors and nurses should get work visas. Seven in 10 backed visas for academics and six in 10 said the same for IT experts.
There was also support for some lessskilled workers. Sixty per cent backed visas for care home workers — a twoto-one majority in support. More than half, 56 per cent, backed visas for seasonal fruit pickers.
On balance, people just backed construction workers coming from the EU, by 46 to 41 per cent.
But there was little support for the idea of a “barista visa”, floated by ministers recently. Only a third were in favour and slightly over half were against.
The country is divided on what constitutes a sustainable level of net immigration. Almost half backed numbers in the range of zero to 100,000.
About a third thought prices would rise if immigration were cut by a large amount, rising to 45 per cent predicting price rises in industries that employ a lot of overseas workers, such as the minicab, care home and food sectors.
Pe o p l e are split about
post Brexit. This means being attractive to foreigners, it means being seen to be open and it means investing in our city rather than focusing on some arbitrary cap.”
Dr Adam Marshall, of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “The best possible Brexit deal won’t be whether inflation would be “a price worth paying” for the sake of lower immigration. Some 42 per cent agreed, while 37 per cent were against because of “the problems it would cause for businesses and consumers”.
Kully Kaur-Ballagan, head of immigration research at Ipsos MORI, said:
worth the paper it’s written on if firms cannot recruit and train the right people, get decent digital connectivity, or get their goods to their market.”
Seamus Nevin, head of employment and skills policy at the Institute of Directors, said: “Sticking with a shortsighted and arbitrary immigration “Despite Theresa May being more trusted on immigration than Jeremy Corbyn, the public is very sceptical that she can bring net immigration down to the ‘tens of thousands’.
“Even most Conservative supporters, who are so positive about her in other ways, think it is unlikely.”
target, which will almost inevitably not be met, will only exacerbate public discontent. It is time for politicians to be honest about the importance of foreign workers.” @JoeMurphyLondon