BBC One’s Question Time last night gave some worrying insights to the rigidity of the Government’s immigration policy, and the doctrine fuelling it. Last night’s panel representative for the Government was George Eustice MP, Secretary of State for Environment. When asked about the Government’s immigration policy and specifically in relation to the hospitality industry, he was typically nonspecific.
His answers indicated that the Government seems to believe that UK Nationals could and should fill the employment gaps that will be seen as a consequence of ending freedom of movement, and the proposed points based system being implemented.
Needless to say, no suggestions were made as to any practicalities of how that would be achieved, it was purely a statement of ideology.
Priti Patel, Boris Johnson as well as Dominic Cummings were all referred to as to suggest the immigration policy was rigid.
Michael Portillo went into further detail and set out a case for the UK not being reliant on ‘foreign workers’ to do the jobs traditionally UK workers are reluctant to. He did encourage employers to provide more training, and more work to be done by the industry generally to position hospitality entry level jobs within the UK workforce pool to be seen as a viable and worthy career choice. His ‘aspirational’ views were eloquent as always, but similarly to the Secretary of State for Environment offered no insight to how their aims might be achieved. Although no longer in Government he is still well connected in the Conservative Party and would have his finger on the pulse of Government thinking.
Given that for decades the UK hospitality industry has been, and is currently reliant upon immigration to fill a high percentage of entry level jobs, and that immigrants are transient for a number of different reasons, principally ambition to succeed and do well, maintaining current UK immigration policy will undoubtedly be a disaster for hospitality. The question now seems, for how long will it be maintained, and how much damage will be done before it is reviewed.