The Spectator

Don’t blame Brexit for our lack of workers

Getty Images

It has become received wisdom that Brexit has condemned Britain to chronic labour shortages. Many of the migrant workers who used to staff our hotels and restaurants, install our bathrooms and look after our children, returned home during lockdown and never returned. Sometimes that is blamed on the end of free movement, other times more generally on Brexit Britain somehow having become less attractive in the global competition for people.

It is a notion which is easily disproved, however, by a simple figure published this week by the Office for National Statistics which went woefully under-reported. There has been no drop in migrant workers in Britain. On the contrary, there were 6.3 million foreign-born workers at the last count – a record high. This amounts to an extraordinary 19 per cent of all workers – higher even than the United States. We don’t hear much debate about these numbers. Perhaps that’s because, since Brexit, immigration has become less controversial – as one would expect with the system now being under democratic control.

It is true that the number of EU-born workers in Britain has fallen slightly, from 2.44 million to 2.39 million. But this has been more than offset by the rise in foreign workers from outside the EU. This figure has risen from 3.37 million to 3.86 million. Indians, Nigerians and South Africans are now among the biggest groups of incomers.

In lockdown, a system designed to help people into work was replaced by old-fashioned handouts

This was one outcome which the Brexit project hoped for: that Britain would stop being so skewed towards European migrants and become more open to those from the rest of the world. That was the benefit of being able to set our own migration policy: we could tailor it to suit the needs of the UK economy instead of being obliged to enact rules made elsewhere.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in