BANK CHIEF: FOREIGN WORKERS DRAG DOWN UK WAGES
Carney’s explosive intervention as number of EU migrants working here hits 2million
A HUGE influx of foreign workers is threatening the economy by holding down wages, the head of the Bank of England warned yesterday.
In a dramatic intervention, Mark Carney said high rates of immigration helped explain why pay rises had been subdued for several years.
He said sluggish earnings were a key risk to the country’s recovery from the worst recession in a century. The comments coincide with the release of figures showing a record 4.8million foreigners work in Britain – making up one sixth of the labour force. Almost two million of them are from the European Union – another all-time high.
Workers from Poland and other former Eastern Bloc countries have taken 942,000 jobs.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics are a fresh blow to the Government’s mission to slash immigration. David Cameron
A RECORD number of European workers have jobs in the UK – fuelling urgent demands for David Cameron to strike an immigration deal with the EU.
New figures have revealed nearly 2 million people born in the EU are employed here – almost one in every 15 of the 31 million-strong workforce.
Of those, 942,000 are from Poland and seven other former Eastern Bloc countries – a surge of 135,000, or 17 per cent, on the previous year.
And 186,000 Romanians and Bulgarians, whose residents have had full freedom of movement and access to work since January 2014, are also working here.
Despite assurances from Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs that there would be no major influx after employment restrictions were lifted, workers from the two Eastern European countries soared by 38,000 – or 26 per cent – in the year to March.
The data offers clear evidence of how a wave of EU immigration has taken advantage of Britain’s fast-recovering economy – which has produced an extra 2 million private sector jobs since 2010 – while the Eurozone remains mired in chaos.
But it will also increase fears that the huge influx from countries in the former
‘Extra strains on public services’
Soviet empire is placing extra demands on Britain’s schools, healthcare and the welfare state, while also forcing down wages.
And it will place increased pressure on the Prime Minister to secure sweeping reforms of EU rules ahead of the in/out referendum on Britain’s EU membership. Mr Cameron has accepted that the EU will not tear up free movement laws but wants tougher rules on benefits – including a ban on migrants claiming any handouts for four years – as the price for trying to keep Britain in Europe
Chancellor George Osborne is opening negotiations with Brussels this week.
Alp Mehmet, vice- chairman of MigrationWatch, which campaigns for controlled borders, said: ‘ Ten years after the EU accession, we still find very large numbers of workers arriving from Eastern Europe, mainly to work in lowpaid jobs.
‘This puts growing pressure on wages and housing. It simply cannot be allowed to continue.’
The Office for National Statistics revealed yesterday that 1.95 million people born in the 27 other EU member states were working in Britain in March.
The figure is almost 500,000 up on four years ago, equivalent to the population of Liverpool, and 1.3 million up on 2004 when Tony Blair threw open the UK’s doors by axing employment restrictions.
There was a rise of 190,000 EU workers in Britain in the past year, an increase of 11 per cent.
The figures have showed a steady climb as large numbers of Europeans escape economic problems in countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece.
Dr Carlos Vargas- Silva, of the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, said: ‘It is the strong British economy that is driving this effect. As long as the British econ- omy remains strong relative to the rest of the EU, we are going to see continued migration from other countries in the EU. It will remain an attractive destination.’
Ukip MEP Jane Collins, the party’s employment spokesman, said: ‘ This level of mainly unskilled migration from the EU is totally unsustainable in both the short and long term.’
She added: ‘Mass EU economic migration is placing extra strains on the UK’s pubic services and infrastructure, such as the NHS, education and housing.’
The ONS figures revealed that 264,000 people born overseas found jobs in Britain in the year to March, taking the total to 4.8million.
The figures do not include the unemployed or dependent relatives of immigrant workers. ONS figures also showed 74,000 newcomers from outside the EU found jobs in the UK over the same period, taking the total to 2.9 million. The number of non-UK nationals in work increased by 294,000, outpacing the 279,000 UK nationals who found jobs over the same period.