Go for British staff, firms urged

30 June 2011 Last updated at 23:17 ET

Mr Duncan Smith will say businesses are too quick to look abroad when they need staff

UK businesses should recruit more unemployed young Britons rather than relying on labour from abroad, the work and pensions secretary is to say.

In a speech in Spain, Iain Duncan Smith will say that if government policy has prepared young people for work, "we need businesses to give them a chance".

Otherwise, he will say, they will be lost to dependency and hopelessness.

Official figures suggest almost 90% of the 400,000 jobs created in the UK in the past year went to foreign workers.

In 2007, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to create "British jobs for British workers".

But he was widely criticised when it emerged that about 80% of the jobs created in the UK under Labour went to foreign migrants.

'Blunt message'

In a speech to the Spanish Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies in Madrid, Mr Duncan Smith will say that the government is determined to create an immigration system "that gives the unemployed a level playing field".

"If we do not get this right then we risk leaving more British citizens out of work, and the most vulnerable group who will be the most affected are young people," he will say.

"But government cannot do it all. As we work hard to break welfare dependency and get young people ready for the labour market, we need businesses to give them a chance, and not just fall back on labour from abroad.

"If government and business pull together on this, I believe we can finally start to give our young people a chance."

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson says that as well as delivering a "blunt message to British employers", the speech will be directed at the Conservatives' coalition colleagues.

"Although the government as a whole has signed up to a cap on the number of migrants from outside the European Union, leading Liberal Democrats have been critical of some of the Conservatives' rhetoric on immigration," our correspondent says.

"The work and pensions secretary doesn't want the concerns over language to translate into a lack of commitment to the policy.

"He believes that his welfare reforms will succeed only if tough action is taken to enforce the rules on migration. Otherwise, he will say, another generation will be lost to dependency and hopelessness ."

'No excuse'

Mr Duncan Smith will say that the previous Labour government's "slack attitude to immigration" has resulted in businesses being too quick to look abroad - including outside the EU - for staff.

He will say that while immigration "plays a vital role" in helping bridge certain skills gaps, there are many foreign nationals in low-skilled or semi-skilled jobs that could easily be done by unemployed Britons.

He will say that, in many cases, people gaining entry to the UK as high-skilled workers end up doing unskilled jobs once they are here.

"Good immigration is managed immigration. It should not be an excuse to import labour to take up posts which could be filled by people already in Britain," he will say.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-politics-13984512

anger profile soccer football science