Priti Patel Urged By Tory To Create Care Worker Immigration Scheme
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Priti Patel has been urged by a Tory MP to create a care and hospital workers’ immigration scheme to avoid a “gaping hole” being left in the sectors’ low-paid jobs.
Sir Roger Gale told HuffPost UK the scheme could be modelled on the seasonal agricultural workers’ scheme that will allow low-skilled migrants to continue to come to the UK after the Brexit transition.
Gale is the first Tory to raise concerns about the home secretary’s new points-based immigration system, which will come into force after the Brexit transition period ends on December 31.
Patel faced criticism when it emerged that a new NHS and care visa would still exclude low-paid social care workers and hospital ancillary staff like porters and cleaners.
It came amid increased focus on care and hospital workers who have played vital frontline roles during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Office for National Statistics, almost 30,000 more care home residents died during the outbreak than during the same time period last year.
Gale, who is the first Tory to speak out since Patel unveiled the rules on Monday, said he had “real concern” about the care sector because “what we actually need and rely on very heavily is imported ancillary workers”.
“What concerns me is we could be left with a gaping hole in the provision of the people who do the messy jobs,” he told HuffPost UK.
“Care workers in residential homes, hospital staff doing sluices and all the muck that the Brits won’t do.
“It worries me that we may find ourselves, having warned about it, light of the people we need to do the jobs that have to be done.”
Gale said a care workers’ immigration scheme could allow low-skilled staff to come to the UK on two-year rolling visas to fill job vacancies.
Unlike fruit-pickers, they would need to speak English.
They would also need to have a clean criminal...
