Duncan Smith tells firms: hire British
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith urges businesses to recruit jobless British youths, rather than hiring migrant workers.
More than half the new jobs created in the UK over the last year went to foreign nationals, Mr Duncan Smith said.
The Government’s drive to cut “painfully high” unemployment depends not only on welfare reform and training but also on getting immigration under control so that British workers do not face so much competition for jobs from migrants, according to the Work and Pensions Secretary.
But he said businesses should also do their bit by opting to give jobs to unemployed Britons rather than recruiting labour from abroad.
Mr Duncan Smith’s comments, in a speech in Madrid to the Spanish Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies think tank (FAES), appear to echo former prime minister Gordon Brown’s promise of “British jobs for British workers”.
Mr Brown’s 2007 pledge was widely criticised – not least by Conservatives – when it emerged that around 80 per cent of the jobs created during Labour’s time in power went to migrants.
But official figures unearthed by Labour MP Frank Field show that 87 per cent of the 400,000 jobs created over the first year of the coalition went to workers from abroad.
According to extracts released in advance, Mr Duncan Smith was due to use his speech to say: “We have to ensure that our immigration system works in the interests of Britain, enabling us to make a realistic promise to our young school-leavers.
“It is part of our contract with the British people.
“This Government is reforming welfare to make work pay, and to help people back to work. And we are toughening sanctions against those who refuse to take jobs when they are available.
“But we also need an immigration system that gives the unemployed a level playing field.
“If we do not get this right then we risk leaving more British citizens out of work, and the most vulnerable group who will be the most affected are young people.”