Credit;PA
A group of right-wing Tory politicians are set to launch a campaign to stop foreign staff taking care home jobs.
The MPs, led by Tom Hunt and flanked by deputy Tory chairman Lee Anderson, will call on Rishi Sunak to adopt their extreme plan for immigration.
They are said to be angry that the PM has failed to deliver on the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge to slash the numbers of people arriving in this country.
Net immigration stood at 226,000 when Boris Johnson made the promise, but it has risen to an all time high of 606,000 since then.
In order to reduce the numbers, the group wants Sunak to take radical action, including ending a scheme to give visas to carers to fill staff vacancies.
Social care workers, care assistants and home care worker roles are currently included on the Shortage Occupation List.
This means staff are eligible for the Health and Care Worker visa, lasting either three or five years.
Latest figures show there were an estimated 165,000 vacancies in the adult care sector in England last year, up 52 per cent from the year before.
The New Conservatives Group said the immigration system set up by the government after Brexit has been “too lenient” and is not working.
On the issue of visas for care workers, the group says: “Visa eligibility for both care workers and senior care workers were introduced as ‘temporary’ measures to address post-pandemic labour shortages.
“They were added to the Shortage Occupation List ‘in response to pandemic pressures’.
“Neither measure has yet been brought to a close, despite the abatement of the pandemic and its associated consequences.”
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