So, no shortage of migrant workers after all

THE following figures, obtained by hard work and research by the journalist Ross Clark, need to be better known. The first shows that the incessant claim that this country faces a shortage of migrant workers following our departure from the EU is wrong. While the number of EU-born workers has fallen slightly, from 2.44 million to 2.39 million, the number of foreign workers from outside the EU has gone up, from 3.37million to 3.86million. In fact there are now 6.3million foreignborn workers in this country, almost one in five of all workers.

Why on earth is this going on? I have long suspected that employers prefer foreign workers to many of those who emerge from our appalling ‘comprehensive’ schools clutching sheaves of alleged ‘qualifications’ yet baffled by the demands of the workplace.

But did you know the other thing Mr Clark has discovered by diligent searching of statistics? There are now 5.3million people on various out-of-work benefits including sickness and incapacity. In some parts of the country, nearly one in five are on such benefits, though the average in the working-age population is 13 per cent. What can this mean?