Sadly, the past two years have been unkind to business, especially small businesses. Many have been struggling to get through the Covid lock-down crisis, and latterly, suffering from crippling energy price hikes, rapidly increasing interest rates, corporation tax rises and general inflation. They can thank the Conservative government policy for much of it.

I take no pleasure in reporting this, but according to The Sunday Times of 6^th November, another shock is about to hit the economy. “In the face of mounting energy bills, demands for higher wages and falling demand for their products, bosses under pressure to reduce costs are reaching for the jobs axe”. Reportedly, discussions are yet to break into the open, but some executives privately confirm that redundancies are on the way.

The good news is that, at present, unemployment levels are at 3.5%, a historic low, with plenty of unfilled vacancies and employers have been routinely complaining that they need ever more migrant workers due to “staff shortages”.

However, the bad news is that this seems set to change. The Bank of England is forecasting that the unemployment rate will reach 6.4% in three years, meaning a million more people unemployed.

According to Migration Watch, of the 1.1 million entry clearance grants to individuals in the year to June 2022:



• 331,200 were for work.
• 486,900 were for study.
• 82,300 were for family.
• 230,000 were for resettlement.

Under this Conservative government, there has been a 72% increase in work visas and a 71% increase in study visas compared with 2019. There is no excuse for this. Our Party strongly believes that it would be unjust for the Conservative government to continue doling out work and study visas like confetti to large numbers of migrant workers if employers start to lay-off our own workers.

The UK Independence Party puts our own people and our own workers first. We believe that employers including commercial businesses and public services (NHS etc.) must employ British nationals first and bear the costs of re-retraining them if needed. In a period of declining employment prospects, it would be wholly inequitable for UK employers to use cheap foreign labour as a way of reducing their staffing costs to the detriment of our own national workforce. The UK Independence Party would strictly control work and study visas to ensure that the admission of foreign workers is strictly controlled. We call on the Conservative government to stop issuing work and study visas at once, and to match our commitment to the British people.

Steve Grimes

UK Independence Party Spokesman

Business, Trade and Foreign Affairs