Will a new points-based immigration policy transform Britain’s workforce?

THE referendum and General Election made it clear that the majority of people want an end to open borders. At last, the Government has acknowledged this. We can fill every job vacancy from the ranks of the unemployed — we just have to ensure that work pays.

A. SMITH, Yeovil, Somerset.

THE new immigration policy, with its insistence on high pay, will cause chaos in farming. Crops will be unharvested because our snowflake youngsters will not do such hard work.

JOHN SMITH, Warrington, Cheshire.

GET able-bodied people claiming unemployment benefit to do farm work for the national minimum wage. Happy farmers, happy benefits system

RON EdWARdS, Leicester.

WILL the proposed immigration rules also apply to footballers? As far as I can see, even considering their high salaries, they qualify for only 20 of the 70 points.

STEPHEN PERKINS, Grimsby, Lincs.

HOME Secretary Priti Patel says we need to ‘upskill’ our own people to do the work of foreign nationals. She clearly does not have a clue

what is happening on the ground. For years I have employed Eastern European workers for my marquee hire business with great success. This is heavy work and requires commitment, which British workers are not prepared for. Last year, local staff were leaving on an almost weekly basis. It got to the point we could not take work on. Just wait until hotels close because no British nationals want to clean rooms or serve meals. There will be no care workers for the same reason. In fact, there will be no one to do any kind of physical labour because UK workers feel manual work is beneath them.

JAMES WOOD, Lincoln.

WHO will fill the gap left by migrant workers? A generation ago, seasonal jobs were filled by young teenagers instilled with the ethic of hard work. In agricultural areas, such as North Yorkshire, where I grew up in the Sixties, potato picking in half-term was a common job for students. In the Nineties, my sons had part-time jobs in retail, hair salons and cafes after school and at weekends. Yet the head of sixth form in a local secondary school has told A-level students to give up their part-time jobs to concentrate on their studies. There is no recognition of the life skills these young people gain by being employed.

SUSAN FELLA, Enfield, Middlesex.

EMPLOYERS who complain there will be a shortage of staff when the number of low-paid migrant workers is curtailed have only themselves to blame. They opted to employ cheaper workers from abroad, which decimated the traditional building trade. People used to be happy to pick fruit, work in warehouses, hotels and the care industry, but we now have an underclass who prefer to live on benefits rather than take these jobs. I worked all my life and even scrubbed floors when necessary. I now pay tax on my pension to finance those who choose not to work.

M. FIELD, Guildford, Surrey.

TOO many parents have discouraged their children from working in construction, social care and hospitality because they are seen as low-paid and low-skilled. The new immigration policy means we will have to look to our own youngsters. We need to end snobbery about vocational education.

SALLY BUTLER, Rustington, W. Sussex.