The government’s immigration policy needs a complete reset, a recent former environment secretary has said.
George Eustice, who was dismissed from the cabinet in September 2022 by Liz Truss during her brief tenure as prime minister, told the BBC that ministers need to redefine the term “skilled worker”.
People such as fruit-pickers, who would good with their hands and able to judge the condition of crops, should not be regarded as “low-skilled,” Eustice said.
Government policy, as expressed by home secretary Suella Braverman, is for the UK to train its own fruit-pickers, a policy aimed at cutting immigration.
Eustice, the MP for Camborne and Redruth in Cornwall and a former strawberry farmer, said he disagreed, adding that the UK needed a long-term seasonal workers scheme.
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“If you’re going to have ‘skills’, at least recognise the correct skills – and those are dextrous, human skills,” he added, while recommending the UK adopt an immigration policy based on economic need to replace what he saw as the misguided “skills-based” system.
Farming minister Mark Spencer responded by claiming 45,000 seasonal worker visas would be made available to the horticulture sector next year, while £12.5m was being spent on research and development of automation and robotics to help improve productivity and sustainability.
“We continue to do all we can to encourage greater take-up of farming and food sector roles including through our New Entrant Support Scheme,” Spencer added.
Eustice, who is stepping down as an MP at the next election, said the government skills-based policy allowed in people who there was no shortage of, such as accountants and lawyers. He added that with the advent of AI, many of these roles could be carried out digitally in future. People with dextrous skills, however, could not so easily be replaced by robots, and they weren’t allowed in the country.
He said the government should “completely reappraise” what it defined as skills and introduce a temporary visa scheme lasting two to three years for sectors such as food processing, which had “acute labour shortages that are contributing to inflation”.
These shortages, caused by not having enough migrant workers, were “exacerbating” the rate of inflation by contributing to higher food prices, along with rising energy costs, he argued.
“Robots find it easier to replace cognitive skills,” said Eustice. “You can train a robot to be a grandmaster of chess quite easily. You can’t train a robot to be a fielder and catch a cricket ball.”
He added that, contrary to Braverman’s position: “Every developed country in the world has seasonal worker schemes for agriculture. We’re going to need to have a seasonal workers scheme for the long term, the next five years, probably longer.”
The government has said 45,000 visas for seasonal workers will be available in 2023, with the potential to increase that number by a further 10,000 if necessary.
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A campaign to recruit more UK-based workers for seasonal farm roles was scrapped in 2021 after a relatively small number of people signed up.
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