By City AM
As ballots start to land on the doormats of Conservative party members this morning, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have entered into what has been branded an “arms race” to tackle illegal migration.
Both are playing a game of one-up-manship on who will limit the most people coming into the UK across the Channel.
The escalation of anti-immigration rhetoric is a key battleground for card-carrying Tory members, who consistently rank illegal immigration as a top concern.
But whoever wins will lead the country, not just the some 200,000 members.
Sunak has proposed a cap on refugee numbers and suggested aid, trade and visas with other countries would be contingent on their willingness to accept the return of illegal migrants.
Meanwhile Truss has promised a Rwanda 2.0 migration scheme, released from the strictures of the European Convention on Human Rights.
It’s worth remembering the original Rwanda scheme is barely three months old.
In an attempt to win the hearts and minds of those who will decide their fate, they have forgotten what “control over our borders” was supposed to mean.
There was not an exodus of workers from the Square Mile post-Brexit, as many forewarned, but we must not rest on our laurels to ensure the British economy has the best talent pool to pluck our next generation of business leaders from.
A host of other sectors are struggling with major labour shortages.
More than 60 per cent of companies said they needed to find more staff in the UK, according to a survey of 5,700 businesses for the British Chambers of Commerce.
Firms blamed the worker shortage on a combination of Brexit, which has stopped workers from the EU plugging gaps in the economy, and the pandemic, which has led to people reconsidering their place in the workforce.
Migration will boost the working-age population, help ease our tight labour market and contribute to our global outlook.
Headline-grabbing policies on only one problem within our immigration system will do little to appease the businesses looking to Boris Johnson’s successor to make good on the Brexit promise and deliver a nimble apparatus which lures the workers needed to our shores.
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