The Conservative peer and Brexit supporter said the government was blocking much-needed workers from entering the UK, even as companies desperately sought labour. “We have people queuing to come into this country to pick crops that are rotting in the fields, to work in warehouses that wouldn’t otherwise work and we’re not letting them in,” Lord Wolfson told the BBC. . “On immigration, it was certainly not the Brexit I wanted, or indeed many of the people who voted for Brexit wanted,” he added. Wolfson said it was still worth incentivizing businesses to hire local workers in the UK and said this could be achieved by ensuring companies pay 10% tax to the government on the wages of foreign workers. “It would automatically mean that businesses never bought someone into the company from overseas if they could find someone in the UK,” he said. “But if they really can’t, they will pay the premium. Businesses across the UK are struggling to find staff, partly due to Brexit restrictions which meant EU citizens no longer had the right to work in the UK. It has affected hospitals, pubs, restaurants and logistics companies, and last year the government was forced to offer temporary visas to truck drivers and poultry workers to help fix the resulting supply chain crisis. Wolfson said most people in the UK had a “very realistic view” of immigration and urged the government to take a “different approach to economically productive immigration”. “Yes, control it, where it is harmful to society, but let people who can contribute,” said the CEO of Next. “We have to remember, you know, we’re all stuck in this Brexit argument. We must remember that what post-Brexit Britain looks like is not up to those who voted for Brexit, it is for all of us to decide,” Wolfson said. It came as the retail boss sought to calm fears about the length of the UK’s economic recession, which the Bank of England said last week could last until mid-2024. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “Next year will be difficult, but there is no need for a national nervous breakdown,” Wolfson said, arguing that the UK’s low unemployment rate – which fell to 3.5% in the three months to August – would help protecting the UK from deeper economic turmoil. “While people will be squeezed, it’s highly unlikely they won’t be able to find work,” he said. The country will likely start to recover by 2024, Wolfson added. “The interesting thing about a supply-side recession is that the seeds of the correction are automatically certain. So as demand falls and factories start to empty, then prices start to fall.” In the meantime, Wolfson said, the government should focus its “very limited resources on the people who need help the most during the coming recession.” He said the last thing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should be doing was providing financial support to households and businesses that don’t need it. That meant the aid was aimed at “people who are going to be cold and people who are going to be hungry, not businesses that want a break on their taxes,” he said. The government has faced criticism for spending billions to cap energy bills for every household and business in the UK, meaning wealthier families and companies get help when they might not need it.
