Tories' U-turn on foreign workers 'shows they don't have a plan for Brexit,' says Labour

The Government has U-turned on controversial plans to force companies to draw up lists of their foreign-born employees – just a week after it unveiled them at Tory conference.

The policy, trailed after a speech by Home Secretary Amber Rudd in Birmingham, had originally mandated to “be clear about the proportion of their workforce which is international”, with suggestions that firms with the highest proportions could be shamed for not investing in the local workforce.

Labour said the about-face on the policy showed the Conservatives were in “disarray” and accused ministers of whipping up “anti-foreigner” sentiment to distract from the lack of a plan over Brexit.

Though public opinion polls suggest widespread support for the anti-immigrant measure, the move attracted widespread criticism from all corners of the political spectrum for its apparently authoritarian approach.

Ukip MEP Roger Helmer on Saturday said the proposals were a “step too far” and would be branded “fascist” had they been announced by his party; Labour’s Andy Burnham said he was “not having this”, while Scottish First Minister said the policy was an “appalling, regressive, and hugely troubling development”.

David Cameron’s former top aide Steve Hilton said this weekend that he believed the plan was worse than Donald Trump’s proposal to ban all Muslims from travelling to the United States. Writing in The Sunday Times newspaper he said the minister might as well have announced that “foreign workers will be tattooed with numbers on their forearms”. Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan also said she agreed with Mr Hilton’s analysis.

Business groups also hit out at the policy, with the Institute of Directors warning that immigration would be a “bone of contention” between firms and the Government and the Confederation of British Industry branding the proposed policy “not welcome”.

After a week of criticism over the move, on Sunday the Government said the data collected under the policy would in fact not be made public and would be for internal policymaking purposes only. “This is not data that will be published. This is about informing policy so that we understand particularly which areas and parts of the country there are skills shortages, evidenced by the fact employers are not taking on local workers as much as they might do,” Education Secretary Justine Greening told ITV1’s Peston on Sunday programme.

“It then enables us really to tailor policy in those areas so that we can respond to that – and make sure that people can take advantage of opportunities economically in their area.”

When it was pointed out that Ms Rudd and her staff had not made this clear when the policy was initially announced, Ms Greening said: “I’m saying it absolutely clearly now and the consultation will be coming out shortly that makes that clear too.”

In her speech, before the policy was unveiled, the Home Secretary had promised “incentives for businesses to invest in British workers”. She warned that the current setup was “allowing some firms to get away with not training local people”.

“We won’t win in the world if we don’t do more to upskill our own workforce,” she said.

The “clarified” policy of gathering the data but not publishing it is strange because the Office for National Statistics already holds data about the proportion of foreign born people living in various local authority areas across the country. HMRC also has access to National Insurance numbers of all workers on a per-company basis.

Responding to the apparent U-turn, the shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott, said: “The Tories are in disarray following Amber Rudd's worrying statement last week, contradicting each other as their policy falls apart at the seams. The Tories' anti-foreigner agenda is a distraction from their own complete failures of policy, and against the best interests of society.

“Many sectors risk collapse if the Tories press ahead with these plans on overseas workers: the City, farmers, the NHS, construction.

“We need answers from the Tories on how they will protect our economy, but they have no plan other than a risky hard Brexit, which would threaten our prosperity.”

Despite causing an outcry on social media, polling by YouGov conducted last week found that a majority of voters from all parties, except the SNP, would have actually supported the plans to draw up public lists of foreigners.

“The Conservatives are lurching from one damaging announcement to another, making the pound crash and foreign workers feel unwelcome,” Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said in response to the U-turn.

“Even Conservatives described the plan as repugnant. It is clear Theresa May is happy to dance to Ukip's tune and only ask the difficult questions later. The Conservatives are reckless, divisive and uncaring. With Labour saying they did not object to this disgusting plan in principle, the Liberal Democrats are now the real opposition to the Conservative Brexit government.”

Theresa May used her speech at her party’s annual conference to attack “politicians and commentators” who spoke up in favour of immigrants.

“Just listen to the way a lot of politicians and commentators talk about the public,” she said. “They find their patriotism distasteful, their concerns about immigration parochial, their views about crime illiberal, their attachment to their job security inconvenient.’’

The PM has pledged to end freedom of movement from the EU to Britain after the country leaves the trading bloc. In the last week she clarified that she would begin the process of leaving in the first quarter of 2017, when she would trigger Article 50.