By Ben Kerrigan-
Strong speeches at the ruling-Conservative party conference on Tuesday has angered several ministers. Brexit reforms announced by Theresa May aimed at expelling foreign doctors in favour of British doctors has roughened a few feathers.
Speaking to the BBC, May seemed to suggest foreign doctors may have to leave the country after enough British doctors had been trained.
“There will be staff here from overseas in that interim period – until the further number of British doctors are able to be trained and come on board in terms of being able to work in our hospitals,” the British prime minister said.
New Laws
The British Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, further outlined new laws to force companies to reveal the proportion of foreign staff they were employing and to make it harder for companies to justify employing foreign workers.
International Development Secretary Liam Fox added to this rhetoric by criticising immigrants who “consume the wealth of the country without ever having created anything”. Of course anyone who consumes without contributing is a liability, but there are also many who create and contribute to the economy. The key thing has to be facts and evidence, with due wisdom applied in each case. A blanket rule to penalise foreigners resident in the Uk will be wrong.
However, for EU visitors under a brexit regime, it must be automatically expected that with the end of freedom of movement, there will be an end date with any work pursued in Britain.
CONCERN
Concern over immigrant numbers contributed heavily to the outcome of Britain’s EU referendum last June.
“Businesses know that the EU referendum result means change to free movement of workers from the EU, but people were not voting to make the economy weaker,” Nevin said.
“The evidence is clear that migrants are a benefit to the economy. The UK has a record level of employment, so immigration is not hurting jobs.
RHETORIC
May and her colleagues are delivering the sort of rhetoric most brexit voters want to hear.However, their rhetoric also has the potential to provoke EU leaders, and give the impression they are going out of their way to exclude foreign workers from jobs they may already be doing. It will be unethical to discriminate against EU workers already in positions where they are making a positive contribution to the economy.
If they are resident in the UK and have an indefinite right to be here. The rhetoric by Liam Fox also has the tendency to alienate EU resident who already had a right to stay in the UK before the EU referendum. The goal of maximising o