To continue reading please register or login to your OHW+ account.

The government must overhaul the immigration system to crack down on illegal working, which exploits the poor and allows UK employers to be undercut by cheap labour, a former Home Office minister warned today.

In a speech to the Social Market Foundation think-tank, John Denham said enforcement should be re-focused to target the employers who hire illegal workers, often on below minimum wage, in contravention of health and safety guidelines and without tax or national insurance.

Unions and employees should receive financial rewards for informing on firms that use illegal labour, and businesses should be publicly embarrassed if caught using contractors who employ illegal workers, he added.

Denham also argued that the economic benefits derived from immigration should be more widely redistributed to help the areas dealing with large influxes of eastern European immigrants.