Entrepreneurs divided on call for immigrant workers’ tax surcharge
SIR Tom and Lord Haughey have spoken out following news a British businessman who backed Brexit is now urging the UK Government to allow immigrant workers easier access to combat nationwide labour shortages.
Lord Simon Wolfson, chief executive of the Next retail chain, said: “In respect of immigration, it’s definitely not the Brexit that I wanted.”
He is now calling for the introduction of a 10 per cent levy on firms to employ foreign workers – a move he says would also encourage companies to look first at recruiting from the UK.
Sir Tom commented: “Lord Wolfson – who is someone I really admire – voted for Brexit and back then made me pause because I was not for Brexit. His stance made me delve a bit deeper. He still couldn’t convince me but he did make me pause.
“Now he has come out and said immigration restrictions are damaging growth in the UK… but he’s also come up with a solution. If you’re recruiting and you cannot take a British person first, you can bring in someone, an immigrant, and you pay a 10% surcharge in the salaries, which will help protect UK jobs. It would be productive migration.
“And here’s an important point to consider: Lord Wolfson’s wife is chief policy adviser to the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.”
Also speaking on their Go Radio Business Show, Lord Haughey was not so keen to support Lord Wolfson’s proposition, saying: “Well, all I have to say is he was more than someone who was ‘up for Brexit’. He trumpeted it long before it happened. And what you find here is someone trying to find a way of getting around the mess he helped create.
“So I don’t have any sympathy for Lord Wolfson, I’m afraid. He was one of the real champions of Brexit. He didn’t sit down and look at what it meant for his business.
“So to suggest trying to rewrite the rules… the UK Government simply won’t do it. Trust me: when we see Jeremy Hunt’s budget this week, unfortunately there are going to be loads of people made unemployed.
“I think Lord Wolfson maybe should have thought long and hard before he was trumpeting for Brexit.”