Vital foreign workers aged 18-30 WILL get UK visas
Carlaw: PM will rethink immigration proposals
CONTROVERSIAL plans to curb immigration from next year are set to be altered following a backlash from Scottish businesses.
The UK Government is to unveil plans to extend a visa scheme for young people to include those from EU countries who work in the soft-fruits and hospitality sectors.
It is understood that Boris Johnson is likely to back an extension of the Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS), which currently allows around 20,000 people aged 18-30 from eight countries to take on low-paid work in the UK.
This would be expanded to include the large number of workers from countries such as Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, who find employment in Scotland’s hospitality and fruit-picking industries.
But ministers are expected to reject calls to lower a wider proposed £25,600 salary threshold for migrant workers – and will also turn down SNP demands for a separate Scottish visa.
The extension of the YMS was discussed during talks between Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack and Mr Johnson earlier this week.
Speaking at Holyrood yesterday, Mr Jack admitted the proposals as they currently stand would cause ‘genuine difficulties’ for some firms, but insisted that salary thresholds were ‘reasonable’.
He told MSPs on the Europe committee that he and the Prime Minister had discussed challenges facing tourism, hospitality and seasonal agriculture work ‘which I believe to be real and require to be addressed’. He added: ‘All I would say is that the solution that I have in mind doesn’t contradict with the Home Secretary’s position. It is something that effectively we can build upon.
‘I’m not going to go into the detail because it is still a work in progress but I am absolutely sure that we can come up with a solution for these industries.’
Speaking to journalists afterwards, he said: ‘It is a solution for the whole of the
‘Challenges which need to be addressed’
UK that recognises you need seasonal agriculture workers in Kent and Somerset and other places as well as Angus picking fruit. It recognises that the hotels in Cornwall have the same challenges as the hotels in North-West Scotland.
‘To be quite clear, we are not devolving immigration any more than we are devolving the constitution and allowing the Scottish Government to decide when they are having a referendum. We are not devolving those things.’
Mr Jack told firms concerned about the salary threshold to simply hike pay. He added: ‘I’ve been to see a fish processing plant in Iceland where the wages are substantially higher than they are here in the UK. It is doing a very similar job and it is a viable competitive business.
‘I make no apology for the fact that we think that, if you stand in a cold factory filleting fish you should be paid a number beginning with a two rather than a number beginning with a one.’
Nationalist MSP Annabelle Ewing said it appeared that the UK Government had ‘no understanding of the demographic issues that Scotland will face’.
She added: ‘The Tories are hell-bent on ripping up the rights of EU nationals by forcing through an immigration system which will negatively impact our economy and public services. The Scottish Secretary admitted the UK Government’s plans could cause “genuine difficulties” for businesses... he must urgently reveal his plans to solve those problems.’