More taxpayers vital so embrace immigration

THE Western Mail’s business section has this week carried two articles on the labour market that in my view deserve to be on the front page. Matt Southall (Business Talk, August 14) asserts that “A no-deal Brexit could be an employer’s nightmare.” Ian Price (The Long View, August 15) contends that the major concern of companies in Wales is “…access to people and skills”.

Mr Price identifies the “…triple whammy of an ageing population, European workers returning home post-EU referendum and (the struggle) to compete with London and the south east for global talent”. He concludes that Brexit cannot be allowed to make EU workers feel less welcome, and in Wales we need an immigration system that puts us at the front of the queue for international talent.

Mr Southall takes a UK-wide view, highlighting the drop in labour supply over the next few years and the disruption this will mean for employers.

To this I would add the pressure on the workforce to support an increasingly ageing population. According to the Office of Budget Responsibility the bill for pensions, social care and health could require an increase of 5% on the basic rate of income tax by the mid-2020s. The conclusion that we need to ensure an open labour market is inescapable.

What’s the easiest way to ensure that? By remaining in the EU, of course. Brexiteers will argue that we voted to leave so we must leave. Enough of us have, however, looked over the Brexit cliff and don’t like what we see.

The pressure for a second referendum is growing by the day, and as David Davis MP, former Brexit minister put it, “A democracy which cannot change its mind is not a democracy.”

Brexit has already made EU workers feel less welcome and it hasn’t even happened yet.

Whether it happens or not those with an issue about immigration need to get over it, wherever immigrants originate. We will need more taxpayers. Robin Lynn Sully