Normally, this would be published later in the day but, as it has already drawn a response from one of our readers, it seems appropriate to publish it now…
Responding to the Government’s new immigration policy, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson, Lisa Smart MP:
After the previous Conservative Government’s dire mismanagement, our immigration system has been left in tatters and public trust has been shattered. It’s right that the government is taking steps to fix our broken immigration system to ensure it works for our country.
However, this must be coupled with a clear plan to make it easier to recruit British workers to fill vacancies instead – including implementing our Carer’s Minimum Wage and speeding up reforms to the apprenticeship system – to ensure these changes don’t have unintended consequences for our economy.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Labour councillor missing in action
New NHS cash will be wasted if social care is left untouched
Prince William's billionaire pal dies after swallowing bee while playing polo
Transition Dundee Ceilidh #dundeewestend
The Trinity made comprehensible.
A remarkable woman and a park
Lib Dems in the King's birthday honours 2025
Andy Daer
Simon R
John Waller
Geoffrey Payne
8 Comments
That’s really not good enough. Essentially agreeing with Labour, who are agreeing with Reform.
Not in my name…..
We have to stop saying the previous government did this and that and it was all wrong. The decisions taken now are by this government, do we agree with todays announcement or not, no pussy-footing.
It is one thing to have a sensible immigration policy and quite another to single out the care homes sector in particular, as it is they who are desperate for a willing and caring workforce, best of luck recruiting enough British staff to cater for the needs of many of us now and in the future.
It seems Reform are already shaping the future of our country to the detriment of many including those who share their views.
Absolutely lamentable. Sir Ed needs to correct this mmis-step without delay.
None of this policy is coherent at all.
Can someone explain how a Carers Minimum wage will actually work and not have a knock of effect.
So lets say the wage is lifted to £15an hour, that means care homes will have to charge more to councils, which will mean councils having to increase council tax to pay for it, I cant see the electorate standing for that.
And what will happen to HCA in hospitals if they see ppl working in care homes receiving a higher salary than them, there will be a mass odious from the NHS into the care home sector and as we know, the Government is against raising NHS wages again, so clearly that wont work either.
This government promised to bring down NHS waiting lists and invest in adult social care to bring down the amount of bed blockers in the NHS.
This immigration policy and all its absurdity will do nothing but make the problems worse.
A classroom of 8 year olds could come up with better soultions that this government
@ Matt,
One of the things that often puzzles me is the selective disregard for the idea of market forces. In this instance, market forces are effectively denied by paying care workers at a rate insufficient to attract people to fill the significant number of vacancies in the sector.
A Carers’ Minimum Wage is at least a recognition that, if you want someone to look after granny or grandpa (amongst others), you have to offer a sufficiently attractive package. And yes, that comes with a cost. And so, the public are offered a choice – pay what is required or let your loved ones fester in a poorly-staffed facility.
Perhaps if we stopped treating the public like idiots and offered them an honest choice, we could then allow them to face the consequences.
Mind you, we might be able to at least partly square that circle by allowing local authorities to establish their own provision once again, given the evidence of excessive profiteering by parts of the private social care sector.
I agree though that this rather bizarre policy emerging from the labour administration is probably the worst of all worlds. “We won’t offer salaries that are competitive within the British labour force, nor will we allow foreigners willing to do the work to enter the country” is almost maliciously designed to fail those amongst us in most need of care.
I agree that wages in the care sector are far too low but Mark is right, if we are to address that it will cost the taxpayer (and better off people who are self-funding care). We must also accept that it is not just pay that makes the work unattractive to so many. Care is often hard physical and emotional work involving shift work and working weekends and public holidays.
Liberal Democrats in the past have not treated people like idiots, but even we seem to be falling into the trap of trying to con the public into believing they can have Scandinavian levels of public services while paying American levels of tax.
To make the best use of our home grown talent our education and training systems needs radical reform. Teachers on the whole want to do the best for their pupils. They must be provided with the resources to do this. Education is an investment in our future. Why are our politicians not doing more to speak up for education and skills when it competes for resources with other departments?