London Owes its ‘Greatest City’ Title to Immigrants: Sadiq Khan
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Dhivyanshu
- . December 13, 2023
- . Update: December 14, 2023 1:26 pm
Sadiq Khan believes the UK government’s plans to cut legal migration will lead to a recruitment crisis in London. Highlighting failure to train the domestic workforce, he said it will leave many London businesses without staff.
“One of the reasons that London is the greatest city in the world is the contribution of successive generations of immigrants working side by side with trained Brits. UK migrants are absolutely integral to our economy and public services, whether running our care homes and our bars and restaurants, or helping power our world-leading arts and creative sector.”
The London mayor said more should be done to train up British workers with the right skills. “But the government needs to realize that these latest immigration policies will lead to a full-blown recruitment crisis. This will have severe consequences for public services and the economy, not just here in London but across the UK.”
UK to Cut Legal Immigrants
The Rishi Sunak-led UK government is working towards reducing legal migration. Home Secretary James Cleverly said they want to reduce UK immigration by at least 300,000. Plans include stopping overseas care workers from bringing family dependents, and ending the 20 percent salary discount firms can pay.
The Tory MPs have been pressing Prime Minister Sunak to tackle surging immigration. The government is also working hard to stop asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the English Channel. Since the UK has left the EU, the government cannot attribute high migration numbers to free movement of people within the bloc.
The migrants arriving in the UK are under government programs, such as refugee visas for Ukrainians and Afghans, work visa for UK for health and social care workers, and student visas etc.
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UK Needs Sensible Migration
Highlighting the aging workforce in the construction industry and the loss of EU-born workers, Sadiq Khan said there is a need for sensible migration. UNISON union general secretary Christina McAnea said tougher migration rules would exacerbate economic headwinds caused by staff shortages and inflation. “These cruel plans spell total disaster for the NHS and social care. They benefit no one. The government is playing roulette with essential services just to placate its backbenchers and the far-right.”
However, Cleverly said the government doesn’t expect the new rule to create a staff shortage in the care sector. There are also concerns that the new rule would bring about a last-minute dash to enter the United Kingdom.
