The Government will wreak enormous damage on London and the UK’s economy if it prevents businesses from continuing to recruit workers from the EU after Brexit, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, warned on November 12.
Highlighting the huge economic, social and cultural benefit of immigration and freedom of movement from the EU to the capital, Sadiq stated that many of the capital’s sectors risk being affected if Ministers prioritise reducing immigration.
He added that some crucial sectors – such as construction, tourism and food, are set to be particularly hard hit by the Government’s post-Brexit immigration policy.
Later this year, Ministers are expected to back the recommendations of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) which in September said Britain should restrict tier 2 visas to jobs paying over £30,000 a year.
Without a system that provides for some level of free movement of labour between the UK and European Union, this would mean that businesses could struggle to fill thousands of key posts.
At present, almost half of all the jobs in the capital across the board pay less than £30,0000. This includes many important roles in businesses such as construction, restaurants, and hotels – and in many cases those roles are currently filled by non-UK EU workers.
For example, approximately 46,000 jobs, estimated to be 12 per cent of London’s entire construction sector workforce are held by workers born in the rest of the European Economic Area (EEA) earning less than £30,000 per year.
The accommodation and food sector could suffer even worse from a Government immigration clampdown. Around 61,000 jobs, a quarter of the workforce in that sector, are filled by EEA born workers earning less than £30,000.
The Mayor issued his stark warning as he started a two-day trip to Berlin and Paris. The trip forms part of Sadiq’s wider efforts to protect the capital’s economy from the effects of Brexit and reiterate his message that ‘London Is Open’ to visitors, investment, talent and ideas.
The benefits of immigration will be on the agenda when Sadiq joins the Mayor of Berlin, Michael Muller, and the Mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, for a discussion on the challenges facing European cities at times of rising right-wing populism across Europe.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “London has for centuries been open to people from around the world and immigration has enhanced our city enormously. From the clothes we wear, music we listen to and the food we eat, London simply wouldn’t be London without the different migrant communities who bring so much to our city.
“We do need a robust, managed immigration system and secure borders, but we also need a system that makes it easier – not harder – to access the workforce that our economy needs.