MP: 'Employ Brits, Not Migrants' - Sky News

5:45am UK, Friday July 01, 2011

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has issued a plea to businesses to take on jobless British youths - rather than migrant workers.

More than half the new jobs created in the UK over the last year went to foreign nationals, he said.

He said that "painfully high" unemployment was being tackled by the Government's welfare reform and training, as well as efforts to get immigration under control so British workers do not face so much competition for jobs from migrants.

However, Mr Duncan Smith added that businesses should also do their bit, by opting to give jobs to unemployed Britons rather than recruiting labour from abroad.

His comments, in a speech in Madrid to the Spanish Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies thinktank (FAES), appear to echo former prime minister Gordon Brown's promise of "British jobs for British workers".

Mr Brown's 2007 pledge was widely criticised - not least by Conservatives - when it emerged that around 80% of the jobs created during Labour's time in power went to migrants.

But official figures unearthed by Labour MP Frank Field show that 87% of the 400,000 jobs created over the first year of the coalition went to workers from abroad.

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.

Iain Duncan Smith

According to released extracts, Mr Duncan Smith will say: "We have to ensure that our immigration system works in the interests of Britain, enabling us to make a realistic promise to our young school-leavers.

"It is part of our contract with the British people.

"This Government is reforming welfare to make work pay, and to help people back to work. And we are toughening sanctions against those who refuse to take jobs when they are available.

"But we also need an immigration system that gives the unemployed a level playing field.

"If we do not get this right then we risk leaving more British citizens out of work, and the most vulnerable group who will be the most affected are young people."

Controlling immigration was "critical" to avoid "losing another generation to dependency and hopelessness", Mr Duncan Smith will say.

"But Government cannot do it all. As we work hard to break welfare dependency and get young people ready for the labour market, we need businesses to give them a chance, and not just fall back on labour from abroad.

"If Government and business pull together on this, I believe we can finally start to give our young people a chance.

He will add: "Good immigration is managed immigration," Mr Duncan Smith said. "It should not be an excuse to import labour to take up posts which could be filled by people already in Britain."