Partner Article

Look to UK to fill jobs, says Work and Pensions Secretary

The work and pensions secretary is encouraging UK businesses to employ more out of work Britons rather than foreign workers.

The BBC reports that Iain Duncan Smith stressed the need to create a better system to give young people who are out of work, or there is a risk that they will be lost in the system.

Figures show that almost 80% of the 400,000 jobs created in the past year went to workers from abroad.

Speaking to the Spanish Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies in Madrid, Mr Duncan Smith delivered a blunt message to employers that they were too quick to look abroad for staff.

He also encouraged businesses to look towards unemployed Britons to fill low-skilled or semi-skilled jobs which so often go to foreign workers.

This speech reflects the Duncan Smith’s desire to prevent concerns about language to translate into a lack of commitment to immigration policy. He was keen to stress that welfare reforms are only possible if action is taken to enforce migration rules.

He is reported to have said: “Good immigration is managed immigration.

“It should not be an excuse to import labour to take up posts which could be filled by people already in Britain.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .