"In February Priti Patel, the home secretary (interior minister), dismissed the concerns of British companies that the new regime would lead to damaging labour shortages, saying there were more than 8m “economically inactive” Britons who could fill the jobs.
What she omitted to say was that 2.2m of these people were students, 2.1m were long-term sick people and 1.9m were looking after families.
During the pandemic, Britons have woken up to the fact that vital sectors such as the National Health Service, home care, farming and food processing are operating thanks in no small measure to low-paid EU and non-European workers of precisely the kind whose numbers Ms Patel’s proposals are intended to restrict."
FT
"However, Brexit is the glue that holds together Mr Johnson’s government, and strident rhetoric and outright lies about immigration were part of the formula that won the UK’s 2016 referendum for the pro-Brexit forces.
During the referendum campaign these forces fanned the perception that had arisen, in the years when the UK was open to free movement of EU citizens, that such workers were to blame for depressed wages, housing shortages and pressure on public services."
