General Election 2017: The question Tories won't answer on migration

Theresa May's Cabinet was accused of a “deafening silence” today for failing to say where cuts in immigration should fall.

The Evening Standard challenged every member of the Cabinet to name an industry or sector that they believed should take fewer overseas workers.

But although Mrs May has set a target of slashing net immigration to the “tens of thousands”, her ministers seemed unable to explain how. None identified a business or sector that should recruit fewer foreign staff.

The Prime Minister refused to say who would be allowed into the UK when challenged in a TV interview with Jeremy Paxman last night. Today she was seeking to move the spotlight onto Brexit talks , her strongest issue, with a speech in the Midlands.

But the silence of the Cabinet continued when the Standard asked each member if the NHS should hire fewer nurses and doctors from abroad to help meet their pledge to “reduce” the number of immigrants.

This newspaper also asked senior Cabinet ministers specific questions about the areas for which they are responsible. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid was asked whether housing and construction should take fewer overseas workers.

Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, was asked whether major infrastructure projects would be affected if there were fewer foreign construction workers. Culture Secretary Karen Bradley was asked how she thought the hospitality industry, such as restaurants, hotels and bars, would be affected if the young and keen recruits from abroad were prevented from coming.

None gave answers. Instead, the Standard was sent a lengthy statement from Conservative Campaign Headquarters that repeated manifesto promises to train more British people in the long-term and to consult on how visas can be used to let firms recruit “the brightest and best from around the world”.

Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of business group London First, said the silence was not good enough.

She said: “Government has to face facts and recognise that many of our industries would simply grind to a halt today without workers from the EU and around the world.

“London and the South-East already has a shortfall of 60,000 construction workers — the people we need to build homes, offices and transport links. So why are we talking about turning them away?

“If the next government is committed to cutting immigration, then they have to commit to radically improving the UK’s skills system first. That’s what we need to hear from ministers, instead of this deafening silence.”

The Federation of Master Builders said there were “acute skills shortages” in the construction industry, including of carpenters and plasterers. Director of external affairs Sarah McMonagle said: “The reason that various Government ministers have been at pains to avoid answering these questions is that it would be politically toxic to do so.”

Candace Imison, director of policy at health think tank the Nuffield Trust, said overseas staff were “vital” to the NHS and that training homegrown staff to replace recruits would take years. “The NHS needs clarity on where the doctors and nurses of the future will come from,” she said.

Seamus Nevin, head of employment and skills at the Institute of Directors, said: “The Conservatives need to be up-front about how it would affect sectors from agriculture to healthcare if the net figure is brought down to the tens of thousands. There simply isn’t a pool of UK workers there to fill the gaps yet... developing one will take years.”

Colin Stanbridge, chief executive of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “We have repeatedly said that we need to protect our access to talent and capacity and that an arbitrary cap is not the way to do this. The lack of detail does suggest that the cap is lacking in any firm background research.”

The director-general of the British International Freight Association, Robert Keen, said: “History tells us it is easy for any party to produce a manifesto promise that wins election votes, but it is much more difficult to deliver it.

“Any silence on how pledges will be fulfilled speaks for itself. Comments about bringing immigration down to ‘sustainable levels as soon as is economically viable’ may be seen as vote-winning, but any business that relies to some extent on immigrant labour needs more clarity on how that will be done without causing labour shortages.”

In her Paxman interview, when asked who would be allowed in, Mrs May said: “Well we are working at the moment on what those new rules should be in terms of…” Mr Paxman interrupted: “So you still don’t have any idea?” Mrs May said migrants would be allowed in “where there are skills shortages”.

Asked if her policy was “economically illiterate”, she said: “It’s a policy which ensures that we are recognising the concerns that people in this country have about uncontrolled immigration.” In his own Paxman interview, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was “making no promises” to cut immigration. He said: “We’ve had Theresa May promising in three elections to make cuts to immigration. I’m making no promises on that.”

A Tory spokesman told the Standard: “Leaving the European Union provides us with the opportunity to develop an immigration system where control rests within the UK, and which works for the benefit of ordinary working people and businesses here in Britain ... at the same time we will give Britain the technical education it has lacked for decades in order to address the needs of those sectors of the economy that require specific skills. We will ask the independent Migration Advisory Committee to make recommendations to the government about how the visa system can become better aligned with our modern industrial strategy.

“We will always ensure that our British businesses can recruit the brightest and best from around the world and Britain’s world-class universities can attract international students.”