Labour to force firms to hire Britons by ditching foreign ‘discount’

LABOUR would try to force employers to recruit British staff by barring them from hiring foreign workers below the market rate for pay.

The party said yesterday that it would scrap rules that allow companies to pay foreign workers to do jobs on the shortage occupations list 20 per cent less than the going rate for the job.

It comes ahead of today’s official figures expected to show that net migration has hit a record high of between 700,000 and 800,000 for 2022, up from 504,000 in the year to June 2022 and nearly treble pre-brexit levels.

The move by Labour to prevent companies undercutting British workers is designed to force businesses to train more UK staff and boost workforce skills to end firms’ reliance on overseas staff.

It has stolen a march on the Government which admitted in a letter to its migration advisory committee (MAC) last August that the 20 per cent salary discount for foreign workers “could put downwards pressure on pay and cause shortages the policy is meant to address actually becoming entrenched”.

In an article for the Telegraph website, Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s immigration spokesman, said: “It is unfair and is a built-in incentive for employers to recruit from overseas in shortage occupations rather than addressing the causes of the shortages.”

It mirrors a proposal by Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, to raise salary thresholds for foreign skilled workers to force employers to train British staff to plug workforce gaps. It is understood to have been blocked by No10 and the Treasury amid fears it could undermine economic growth.

Official figures today are expected to show that work, study, humanitarian and other visas have nearly doubled to around 1.4 million. Internal Home Office data suggests there will still be more than 1.1 million visas being granted by the time of the election in 2024, with net migration at around 500,000.

Yesterday Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, told MPS the Government could bring forward further measures to reduce net migration before the next election, saying there “may be more that needs to be done”. He said the manifesto pledge to reduce overall immigration was a “solemn promise to the British public”.

It followed Tuesday’s announcement of a crackdown on foreign students, barring them from bringing in dependants or switching to work visas before completing their studies and reviewing their maintenance. Rishi Sunak told the Commons it was the “biggest ever single measure” to tackle legal migration.

However, an Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults found Labour is now more trusted than the Conservatives on immigration, asylum and its proposals to tackle the small boats crisis.

It found 38 per cent trusted Labour to have the right policies on immigration and asylum seekers, and 37 per cent trusted it over the boats crossing the Channel. Just 29 per cent trusted the Tories on immigration, with 28 per cent trusting them on asylum policy and 27 per cent trusting them on small boats.