Businesses warn on skill shortages after 100,000 EU workers shun Britain
Phillip Lee (Bracknell) stressed: “We need the informed consent of the public to proceed with Brexit.”
L i b D e m S i r E d D avey (Kingston and Surbiton) urged Londoners to march “in large numbers so we can bin Brexit”. And fellow Lib Dem Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) MORE than 100,000 EU citizens stayed away from Britain last year fuelling fears of skills shortages caused by Brexit.
New figures reveal a 22 per cent fall in the number of people from the EU registering to work between 2017 and 2018 — with an even bigger 26 per cent drop in London.
Business leaders told the Standard that firms are already suffering because talented young workers from European countries are choosing to go elsewhere, leading to skilled posts going unfilled.
The loss of EU talent is revealed in an analysis by City Hall of new National Insurance numbers issued to people working for the first time in the UK. Nationally there were 628,238 EU workers registered in the year ending in June 2016, just before the referendum, making up the vast majority of all overseas workers.
In the year to June 2017 that dropped to 573,555 and a year later it dived to just 443,732, a fall in one year of 22.6 per cent. In London, the figure was 234,069 before the referendum, 207,179 a year later and then down to 152,968, a fall of
said: “Nobody voted for the deal which could eventually emerge or even worse No Deal.”
Karen Buck (Labour, Westminster North) stressed: “A deal has to be put back to the British people.”
Joan Ryan (Labour, Enfield North) warned that a “destructive no deal” was “looking ever more likely”. Ruth Cadbury (Labour, Brentford and Isleworth) said: “Brexit is bad 26.2 per cent in the past year alone. Writing in tonight’s Standard, Mayor Sadiq Khan says: “Talented people from across Europe are already deciding to take their skills and labour elsewhere... we simply can’t afford to go on like this.”
Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of London First, said: “Over half London’s employers are finding it tough to hire, with fewer applications from EU citizens cited as the number one cause.” The Institute of Directors urged Theresa May to urgently give more details of how to protect EU nationals’ rights in a no-deal Brexit.
for London,” while Neil Coyle (Labour, Bermondsey and Old Southwark) added: “My constituents do not want or deserve all the damage May’s reckless approach will deliver.”
Dame Margaret Hodge (Labour, Barking) stressed: “For Londoners, having a sensible resolution to the European question is really important.”