Boris Johnson’s plan to open up the doors of immigration to the Indian subcontinent in exchange for a trade deal has been described as a “kick in the teeth” to the British worker and a handout to big business interests.
Travelling to the former British colony on Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he is hoping to ink a post-Brexit trade deal with India by “the end of the year”.
Speaking from his plane, Johnson said that he would be open to loosening restrictions to allow more immigration from India in exchange for a trade deal to lift tariffs, saying according to The Telegraph that he has “always been in favour of having people come to this country.”
“We have a massive shortage in the UK, not least in experts in IT and programmers,” he said adding: “We’re short to the tune of hundreds of thousands in our economy. We need to have a professional approach but it has to be controlled.”
In comments provided to Breitbart London, the chairman of the Migration Watch UK think tank, Alp Mehmet described the plan to open up more immigration from India as “More caving to the business lobby and another kick in the teeth for British workers.”
“Despite the abject failure to control immigration, Mr Johnson’s hint to open up more routes to cheaper labour from India – a country that in 2021 received more work visas than any other – is inexplicable. It comes after vastly increased immigration from around the world, driven by the scandalously lax post-Brexit immigration rules.”
While the UK has significantly increased restrictions for citizens of the EU to migrate to Britain, it has liberalised migration for the rest of the world under the prime minister’s points-based system for migration, which crucially does not set a firm cap on the number of migrants allowed into the country like the Australian model.
As a result of liberalising the immigration system, the number of work visas granted last year were up 25 per cent over the pre-Brexit and pre-coronavirus year of 2019. India accounted for the most of any country, with 67,839 Indians being granted work visas last year last year, a 14 per cent increase over 2019.
The failure of the Conservative government to fulfill its longstanding — though never fulfilled pledge — to reduce immigration has seemingly worn thin with the British public, with a poll from YouGov finding this week that a staggering 72 per cent of the public believe the government is handling the issue of migration badly.
“So much for Mr Johnson’s 2019 promises to reduce immigration and champion the British worker. The voters will not forgive him for misleading them,” Migration Watch’s Alp Mehmet said.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka