LABOUR slammed the government’s “rank hypocrisy” today for slamming the door on foreign care and health workers by steaming ahead with its immigration Bill. 

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds declared that Labour would not support the Bill, which had its second reading in the Commons today, because it poses a “threat to our national interest.”

He said: “It is rank hypocrisy towards our NHS and care workers — over 180,000 in England and Wales alone — to stand and clap for them on a Thursday night and then tell them that they are not welcome in the UK on a Monday.

“This Bill creates a threat to our national interest. It risks the NHS not being able to fill the desperately needed roles for trained nurses and care-home workers at the very moment when we rely on the NHS most.”

The Immigration Bill returned to the Commons yesterday after it was introduced on March 5. The legislation scraps free movement within the EU and replaces it with a points-based system prioritising higher earners. Home Secretary Priti Patel described the Bill today as “historic.” 

“Our new points-based system is firmer, fairer, and simpler,” she said. “It will attract the people we need to drive our economy forward and lay the foundation for a high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy.”

But industry leaders, including those in the hospitality, care and health sectors, have warned that the new entry requirements will result in hundreds of thousands of jobs going unfilled. One proposed requirement was that people could only enter the country if they had secured a job with a minimum salary of £25,600. 

Unions have slammed the government for pushing ahead with the Bill, arguing that it would effectively close the door on migrants in many of the key worker roles keeping the country going during the crisis. 

Petros Elia, from United Voices of the World, which represents largely migrant workers in low-paid jobs, told the Morning Star: “These immigration controls will simply protect wealthier migrants’ freedom of movement while criminalising poorer migrants, fuelling racism, and potentially pushing large sections of the workforce underground. This Bill is anti-working class. 

“Pushing this Bill through Parliament now, in the middle of a pandemic, when many of the migrants that this Bill intends to ban from the UK and criminalise are keeping the population safe, cared for, clean, educated and fed, is an absolute disgrace.” 

Unison assistant general secretary Christina McAnea warned that the care sector would collapse without foreign workers.  

“The pandemic has taught us that low pay doesn’t mean low-skilled,” she said. “Out-of-touch ministers measuring value only in pounds and pence — and decreeing that those earning less than £25,600 can't contribute — clearly have never been to a care home. To slam the door in their faces now is shameful.” 

Today a group of cross-party backbenchers accused Ms Patel of rushing the Bill through without giving MPs proper time to scrutinise it, having announced its return to Parliament just last week. 

The group, which included the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas and former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, described the Bill as an extension of the Tories’ hostile environment policies and labelled it “unfit for purpose.”  

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who spearheaded an amendment to reject the legislation, said: “The immigration Bill would give the government sweeping powers to alter immigration law without thorough scrutiny and extend the hostile environment policies that led to the Windrush scandal.

“We’ve tabled this amendment because the Bill remains completely unfit for purpose, rowing back on the rights of migrant workers while also risking the rights of British citizens abroad.”

The second reading of the Bill was expected to pass through the Commons last night, after the Star went to press. 

The details of the points-based immigration system proposed in the Bill will not be published until later this year. However, it is expected to include minimum salary thresholds.